


Washed Out

by CosmasColin



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Angst, Brother/Brother Incest, Conspiracy, Fear, Incest, Kidnapping, M/M, Memory Loss, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Organized Crime, Rejection, Slow Build, Tadashi didn't die, Threats of Violence, Underage Kissing, Underage Sex, hidashi, mild violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:12:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2604779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmasColin/pseuds/CosmasColin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to an accident, Hiro develops dissociative amnesia of his older brother, Tadashi, and both eventually realize Hiro isn't getting those memories back. So all they can do is try to make some new memories together. That can't be any harder than making robots, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who?

**Author's Note:**

> Note the tags. More will be added as the story is posted.
> 
> This story hasn't been completely written yet. I'll try to keep the content coming if there is any interest in it.

“I have to try to help him!” Tadashi yelled over the panicky crowd in the street, tugging his arm out of his younger brother’s grasp. In front of them, the auditorium was awash in flames that sucked at the air around them and licked at the night sky above.

“No Tadashi!” Hiro screamed, but Tadashi had already run up the steps and disappeared into the inferno. Hiro didn’t know what to think or do. The heat pouring out of the building was already burning his face, even from a distance. The smell of the smoke was stifling and flakes of ash blew all around him, clinging to his clothes and hair. Every instinct told him to run and take cover, but all Hiro’s thoughts were to help his brother. There was a war of emotions within him and he wondered if his shortness of breath was the onset of a panic attack or simply the fire choking him.

Sirens in the distances pulled his attention back to reality. Hiro realized help wasn’t going to arrive in time unless he was the one doing the helping. He sprinted toward the main entrance, shielding his eyes from the heat and ash with his forearm. As his foot landed on the first of about twenty stone steps leading to the open double doors, an explosion launched Hiro off his feet and propelled him backwards.

The next thing he knew, he was laying on his back in the street yards from where he'd been running, the air knocked out of his lungs, with a throb coming from the back of his head. He could only hear his heartbeat above the ringing in his ears. He shook his head and instantly realized that was a mistake. He threw his hands up to the sides of his head, but it did little to ease the spike of pain shooting threw his brain. When his vision cleared, he saw the horrible truth.

There was a gaping hole in the wall where the doors to the auditorium had been. Fiery debris was everywhere and people in the streets were uselessly screaming into his deafness and holding onto their own bloody wounds. Hiro brought his hand from the back of his head into his view and it was wet with crimson. Everything was so quiet and the world seemed to slow down. What was happening? Why was he here? Nothing made sense. There was a fire obviously, but he didn’t recognize the building. This wasn’t his home or his old school or his regular stomping grounds to find bot fights. Yet he was really sad, angry, and terrified. He just couldn’t figure out why. Why were tears streaming down his face? He wiped them from his face, gray smudges on his fingers that couldn't answer his questions. The world was speeding back up again, but he desperately needed more time to figure things out. He was good at figuring things out. He just needed another moment to think.

All the sounds of the world rushed back into his ears. White flashed across his vision and he squeezed his eyes shut. When he dared to open them, he remembered something important. “Tadashi!” His brother was in that building. 

“Hiro!” he heard from a distance. “Hiro, where are you?”

Hiro tried to yell but choked on the ash in the air and that sent another spike through his head. He had to close his eyes again and clapped his hands over his ears and eyes. With the pain came the confusion again. Had someone called for him?

“Hiro!” the voice was closer, strangely familiar. Suddenly there were hands on him and he was being lifted up, but it didn’t matter because pain bulged behind his squeezed-shut eyes. “Help! I need help here.” Coughing came from the voice. The person carrying him almost dropped him in the coughing fit and another spike bounced around inside Hiro's skull. After that, darkness consumed him and he welcomed it.

*

Two days later…

Hiro woke in a dim hospital room, blinking his eyes and listening to the steady beep of machines around his bed. He lifted his arms to stretch, but froze midway when he noticed the IV near his wrist. It took a moment for him not to be freaked out by the metal and plastic puncturing his skin. Eventually he gained enough courage to move his arm and touched his head. It still hurt but no nearly as bad as when he’d been near the fire. A gauze bandage was wrapped around his head, matting his dark hair against his forehead. He was still sleepy even though he’d just woken up, but mustered the energy to survey the room.

It was as barren as any hospital room Hiro had every seen in movies and TV shows. His bed, the machines blinking and beeping, a cheap chair in the corner, a little wooden stand with a potted plant, even a Get Well card with somber typeface propped open to stand on end. It was dark outside the window and only a long fluorescent tube above his bed cast any light. There was another bed in the room mostly obscured by a drawn curtain. Someone was occupying it – probably another fire survivor like him. He couldn’t really make out who it was and his drowsiness was calling him back into the abyss stronger than his curiosity to find out who shared his room. He figured his Aunt Cassie, the person who’d raised him since the age of three, was in a waiting room somewhere or maybe home, sleeping soundly, waiting for word of his prognosis. Either way, he’d deal with that in the morning. 

He rolled onto his side to get more comfortable, when rustling came from the bed next to his. The person sat up on an elbow and drew the curtain back. “Hiro?”

“Uh, hey,” he awkwardly waved to the stranger. The guy, now that Hiro could see him, looked like he was in his late teens, black hair tucked under a gray ball cap with San Fransokyo Institute’s initials stitched above the bill. It was a shock of informality against the sterile hospital room. And it certainly didn’t match the light-patterned hospital gown the guy was wearing.

“You’re awake!” The guy practically jumped out of bed and went for the door. “Cass, he’s awake.”

He would’ve questioned why this guy knew his aunt’s name, but he was distracted by the back of the guy’s gown, or rather his entirely exposed backside pouring through the untied opening. The muscles in the guy’s upper back flexed as he braced the door open and called for Hiro’s aunt. His skin was lightly bronzed with a faint tan line just above his firm butt. Oh yeah, the guy wasn't wearing underwear and Hiro thought it would be a crime to cover something so perfect. Hiro caught himself staring at it and blushed, but didn’t look away. The guy was hot and totally not paying attention to the boy ogling him. As the guy turned, Hiro tried to see anything hanging between his thighs, but the guy must have noticed his exposed state at last and clasped his gown closed with one hand.

Hiro didn’t have time to thank whatever drugs he was pumped full of for preventing him for gaining an erection, as Aunt Cass burst into the room and trapped his hand between hers in a death grip.

“Hiro, my strong little man. I knew you’d wake up.”

“Hey, Aunt Cass… You know, I can feel my hand.”

“Oh, sorry.” She reluctantly let go, and pet it instead. “The nurse will be here in a moment. It’s so late, they don’t have much staff right now.”

“It’s ok. I’m fine, just tired.” _And embarrassed._ The guy was just hanging out behind her with a goofy smile on his face watching his aunt holding his hand and hearing her call him ‘little man.’ That’s just what he needed to wake up to.

“You’ve been out like a light for two days, and had me so worried.”

He shrugged his shoulders, "Don't worry, I'll try to avoid big explosions next time."

Suddenly a woman in white stepped into the room. “Miss Hamada, I need to ask the boy a few questions before you talk to him further. And young man,” she directed at the guy, still smiling at Hiro like he was the coolest kid ever, “back to your bed. You should be resting at this hour. You have physical therapy in the morning.”

“Yes, ma’am,” and he trudged over to the bed, keeping an eye on Hiro the whole time.

“Ok,” the nurse looked at Hiro. “You had a concussion when you fell and there was a little swelling. I’m going to look into your eyes for a moment and do a couple more tests, ok? 

“Sure,” Hiro shrugged again. The nurse shined a light in each eye, had him follow her finger without moving his head, tested a couple of his reflexes, made sure he had sensation in all his limbs (damned ticklish feet), and had him squeeze both her hands in his to make sure they had about the same amount of strength.

“He’s a little weak,” the nurse commented to Cass, “but otherwise he seems physically fine.”

“That’s great, right?”

“Well, he’s passed a few of the test. The doctor will make sure he’s fully fit in the morning.” She turned back to Hiro. “Lets test your mind now.” He nodded. “What is your name?”

“Hiro.”

“Your last name too, please.”

“Hamada. Hiro Hamada.”

“Good. Now what year is it?” He answered correctly with the nurse’s approval. “Your address?” “What color is the sky?” “What is 2+2?” “What’s your favorite TV show right now?” “Who’s this?” She motioned to Aunt Cass.

“Aunt Cass.”

“Good, and who’s that?” she pointed to the guy watching them from his bed.

Hiro was silent for a moment. Was that a trick question? Was he supposed to know? _Come on, Hiro. You’re smart. Think!_ But nothing came to him. The frustration must have shown on his face because both Aunt Cass and the guy’s smile faltered. “Uh,” he tried to buy himself some time. It wasn’t even on the tip of his tongue. There was just nothing coming to mind at all, not a clue, why he’d know this guy. Maybe he was Hiro’s boyfriend… No, that’s crazy, stupid wishful thinking. The guy is a few years older and completely out of his league physically. Maybe he was a young firefighter that rescued him… Yeah, that could be a plausible answer, but was it right to guess when he didn’t really know at all. The truth was probably best.

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Hiro,” the guy said, obviously agitated, "Don't joke around."

The nurse piped up, “I think it’s time we let Hiro rest.” Thank goodness because Hiro was exhausted. Aunt Cass and the guy tried to protest, but the nurse had none of it. “Miss Hamada, Hiro needs to rest if he’s to fully recuperate and stressing him too much won’t help his recovery. We’ll wait until the doctor returns tomorrow. And you too, no talking – you both need your rest, especially young Hamada here. You’re in a delicate state right now, Hiro. We need you fully rested tomorrow so the doctor can see what treatment you'll need.” Hiro nodded and the others begrudgingly agreed.

Aunt Cass hugged Hiro lightly and kissed his cheek, tears in her eyes, before she was escorted out into the hall. The nurse pulled the curtain all the way around his bed, encapsulating him, before she exited the room.

The two boys lay there silently for a few minutes. Hiro was about to drift off when the guy spoke up from behind their curtains.

“You really don’t remember me?”

Hiro could barely keep his eyes open, let alone think, but he did hear the distinct choked up difference in the guy’s voice. “Sorry,” he offered. The guy didn’t reply. Hiro thought he may have heard a couple muffled sniffles coming from the other bed, but sleep took him before he could really think anything of it.


	2. What?

It had been two weeks and the doctors had finally released Hiro back into the care of his aunt. Cass, Tadashi, and Hiro were all piled in the car, the radio announcing what was terribly obvious; a multi-car pileup had brought traffic to a standstill.

The excitement of going home was supposed to have distracted Hiro from everything that had happened since he woke up, but as minutes turned into an hour waiting for the congestion to clear, those thoughts were inescapable.  He would’ve started a conversation, but these days every topic seemed to come back to his supposed brother, now sitting in the passenger seat directly in front of him. Hiro had chosen that back seat purposely so he wouldn’t have to look at Tadashi and so Tadashi couldn’t look at him. It unnerved him when Tadashi looked at him with sad brown eyes and a shadow of a frown on his lips. Both Aunt Cass and Tadashi knew it, and they thought they knew why, but they didn’t really. Hiro wished he could go back to that first morning, before he knew what his life really was.

*

He woke up before the guy in the bed next to him with an alarmingly full bladder. Hiro pulled back the privacy curtain quietly and there posed a dilemma. Should he try to stand? He felt fine, but head injuries can do all sorts of things to one’s balance. There was a clean bedpan next to the bed and Hiro eyed it menacingly. No way was he going to use that thing and stink up the place with his urine. And how was he even supposed to use it lying down? _Screw it_ , he thought and swung his legs, one at a time, over the edge of the bed.  He used the bathroom connected to their room without issue, rolling the IV pole stand beside him. He climbed carefully back into bed and closed his eyes relieved he didn’t have to degrade himself more than he had to before what he knew was going to be a tough day.

After a little while of resting his eyes, Hiro heard some rustling from the other bed. The guy must’ve finally woken up. Hiro stayed still as the guy drew back his privacy curtain. He didn’t want to upset the guy like he seemed to last night. He squinted through his almost totally closed eyelids, his short eyelashes framing his vision, to watch the guy uninterrupted. Maybe it would give him a clue as to who this guy was – jog his memory so to speak.

The guy stretched then seemed to remember Hiro was still sleeping next to him and grief fell over his face. It looked like the guy was trying to rub the upsetting emotion off with his hand as he got up, grabbed a small bundle from a drawer, and made for the bathroom. Hiro watched as the guy closed the door behind him and heard shower water turn on.

Hiro opened his eyes and sighed. That guy was undressing and taking a shower with just a measly wall between them. Screw figuring out who he was, Hiro wanted to figure out every angle of his frame, every articulation of his movement, and feel every muscle under his skin. Preferably when wet, like straight from a shower. Hiro laughed at himself, as if he had a chance. It was scary he was nerding out over this guy so quickly. It must mean he was falling hard and fall for him. Any chance or not, Hiro wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to spy on the guy as much as possible while they shared a room.

He waited, eyes shifting half-closed, waiting for the water to turn off. When it did, he snuggled in his blankets like he was comfortably sleeping and definitely didn’t think about how creepy he was being. The door opened and Hiro was glad he was lying down because he went lightheaded at the sight. The guy was dripping wet with only a towel around his waist. His chest was semi-broad, not intimidatingly muscular and not wussy-small like Hiro’s. It was just right and it tapered down to a slim waist and hips before his light skin dove into the fluffy white cotton of the towel. He was rummaging through a drawer and pulled out a toothbrush. The guy’s arms were slender and lanky, but hidden muscles twitched with potent strength as he moved. Hiro ached to touch them, trace the lines of their humble power.

The guy was only in the room for a moment before returning to the bathroom. But then the unthinkable happened. The guy casually closed the door only halfway. The mirror on the inside of the door reflected perfectly an image of the guy standing over a sink in just his towel. Hiro had forgotten everything about keeping incognito, his eyes wide, watching the guy brushing his teeth. The guy’s neck was illegally long, leaning forward to examine his teeth brushing. His arm was raised revealing a short tuft of dark hair under it and his bicep flexed-and-relaxed, flexed-and-relaxed as he moved the brush in short strokes. Hiro’s mind went to all sorts of filthy places and he felt his young cock move and inflate with excitement.

He adjusted his growing tent and the folded the blankets so his arousal wouldn’t be noticeable, but he never took his eyes for more than a few seconds off the scene playing out before him like some sort of lucky real life porn being filmed right in front of him. When the guy had finished, he combed his fingers through his hair then moved out of view of the mirror. The towel was thrown from out of view onto the counter next to the sink. Hiro’s eyes swelled in his head, hoping beyond hope to see what he’d tried to glance last night between the guy’s thighs, but the guy never moved back into view. Instead, he suddenly walked out the restroom fully clothed.

They guy started with surprise when he saw Hiro’s eyes open and awake. “Hi,” he said, recovering quickly. “Sleep ok?”

Sleep ok? Are you freaking serious? Hiro’s cheeks were flushed and he was hiding what, to him, was a very painful, clear and present boner. Hiro responded the only way his could in his anxious state, with a sort of breathy exhalation and a shrug.

The guy just shook his head with a light smile, flashing some brilliant teeth (he had just brushed), and grabbed his gray ball cap from his bed and fit it squarely on his head.

“Hi,” Hiro stated suddenly, embarrassing himself with his abrupt and belated salutation.

“Hi,” the guy repeated, another little grin playing across his unfairly perfect face. “Remember me yet?”

“Nope, but I wish I did.” What the hell Hiro! His cheeks darkened an even redder shade. “I mean, uh, I should remember you, shouldn’t I? You didn’t just rescue me from the fire right? You aren’t just some firefighter or something.”

“I did find you after the explosion, but, nope, I’m not a fireman. Guess again.”

Hiro eyed him suspiciously, “If I’m supposed to know who you are, shouldn’t you be a little more concerned that I can’t remember?”

“Well, I _was_ really upset last night-”

“Sorry about that,” Hiro looked away.

“I was upset, but I really think you’re just joking now. You’ve gotten me good in the past and I’m seeing right through this one from the beginning. You can’t fool me.”

“So, denial then?”

“Exactly,” the guy nodded and winked.

“Whatever you say… What’s your name?”

“Ha, good one,” the guy extended his hand to shake. “I’m Tadashi.”

“Hiro,” Hiro shook back, memorizing the warmth of Tadashi’s hand enveloping his own. “Nice to meet you.”

*

That had been a great moment. But it was completely overshadowed by what followed next and Hiro was glad no one was looking back at him in the car to see the confusion of emotions pinching his face. Aunt Cass and Tadashi thought it was trauma from realizing the significance of his memory loss that agitated him, but it wasn’t that at all. Hiro was upset because even though he knew Tadashi was his brother, he was still unequivocally attracted to him, and that sexual desire made him illogically question whether everyone was telling him the truth about Tadashi’s relation to him. Even though Hiro knew there was no plausible reason for them to lie, he just couldn’t shake wanting it not to be true.

* 

The doctor carefully unwrapped the bandage from Hiro’s head and inspected the back of his skull with a few promising grunts of approval. “We’ll have to take another scan of your head, but everything seems to be healing nicely so far. You’re a lucky young man.”

The doctor explained his condition from when he’d arrived at hospital to his current condition. When Hiro hit his head during the explosion, it had caused a concussion and cerebral edema. The medical team monitored the swelling frequently, and auspiciously it never got to the point where they needed to drill holes into his skull to relieve it. He was also fortunate not to have broken his neck or any other bones from the fall, which the doctor attributed to his young, healthy body. However, his memory loss was a problem. That meant his brain had been damaged, at least temporary, and he’d be on observation for a time to make sure his condition didn’t slide backward.

Aunt Cass and Tadashi had looked so proud of him as he calmly absorbed the news. The doctor continued with a set of questions similar to what the nurse had asked him the night before. When Hiro stated he didn’t know who Tadashi was, the doctor’s face remained emotionless. “Mr. Hamada, I need you to be completely honest with me. Your answers are part of a sophisticated diagnosis for your type of head trauma. Even if you are embarrassed, I’m sure you understand hiding anything from me could be dangerous and possibly life-threatening to you.”

“I understand,” Hiro replied, nervously glancing at Tadashi with his still somewhat present grin.

“Do you remember anything of this man?”

“I –” Hiro paused. He so wanted to remember. He didn’t want to disappoint this guy that he’d so suddenly become enamored with. Was it possible blowing this answer would ruin any chance of them possibly getting to know each other better – maybe to find out if Tadashi had some inkling of feelings for Hiro too? It seemed like he had feelings for Hiro. The way the guy knowingly smiled at him all the time, the fond look in his eyes, the way he never seemed to leave Hiro alone unless he had to. Hiro didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he’d never really had much control of them. Even the name Tadashi felt familiar and comfortable, even sexy, on Hiro’s tongue, like he was meant to shout out the name in passion and whisper it in tender moments. And as usual, Hiro was going to screw up his chances. “I can’t remember anything. I only know what I’ve been told so far.” He turned to Tadashi. “You’re name is Tadashi. You rescued me from the fire. You go to SFIT judging by your hat. That’s it. That’s all I know.”

The doctor was about to comment, but Tadashi jumped up, anger abruptly coloring his face. “Hiro, stop this stupid joke. You know who I am. Tell him!” The doctor and Aunt Cass stood as well, attempting to pacify him. “You know! Just say it. Just say it, damn it!” Tadashi’s eyes were glassy with tears. Hiro could only shake his head, mouth slightly parted in dismay. 

“Young man!” The doctor grabbed Tadashi’s arm. “I must ask that you leave this instant!”

Tadashi ignored him, “Say it! Tell him it’s a joke. Why are you doing this?”

“I don’t know!” Hiro finally yelled back. “Don’t you get it, I don’t know you!”

And like that, Tadashi’s knees gave out. The doctor, previously attempting to pull him to the exit, was now forced to catch him from falling. Lines of salty tears fell down Tadashi’s flushed cheeks and his face screwed up with agony. Much quieter than before, Tadashi mumbled, “Hiro… Hiro, I’m your…” But the last word was too much and Tadashi choked on a sob instead. 

Aunt Cassie was now crying openly too. She gently took up Hiro’s hand, “Sweetie, Tadashi is your brother.”

*

Hiro remembered in that instant his world had flipped on its side. The doctor had both of them taken out of the room, but everything after that was a blur. Scans, blood tests, and loneliness dominated the rest of his time at the hospital.

Traffic was moving again and Hiro had to use the cuff of his long-sleeved hoodie to wipe away the tear forming in his eye. He didn’t even know why he was crying. He didn’t even know his brother. He guessed it was only because he was bringing sadness to his family and there was nothing he could do about it.

He hadn’t seen Tadashi again until today when Aunt Cass came to pick him up from the hospital. It had been clear she forced him on this little trip. Hiro guessed the guy, his brother, was still mad at him. But it wasn’t like it was his fault. He didn’t forget everything about Tadashi on purpose. If anything, Hiro thought he had it worse. He had been falling for his own brother. He sighed. He still couldn’t get used to Tadashi being his sibling. His mind couldn’t make sense of it.

“You all right back there?” Aunt Cassie said, watching him through the rearview mirror.

“Yeah,” Hiro answered, slouching lower in his seat so she couldn’t see him anymore.

Tadashi shifted in his seat and that almost hurt more than being yelled at. The silence was more uncomfortable than when his IV had been removed.

Aunt Cass turned down their street and Hiro saw his house for the first time in what seemed forever. Despite everything, it would be good to be home. He couldn’t wait to be rid of his hospital bracelet, jump into his own bed, start thinking nonstop about robot design again, and put everything else behind him. He bounded out of the car the moment Aunt Cass cut the engine.

“Hold on, let me get the key,” she said, following much too slowly for Hiro’s energy level. Tadashi moped even further behind. She opened the door for him and he threw his backpack on the couch. He went straight for the kitchen, popped a pastry from the cabinet into the toaster, and grabbed a 2-liter bottle of soda from the frig while he waited for his processed snackage to heat up. “Geez, kid. Didn’t they feed you in that place?”

“Yeah, poison!” he said, gulping sweet caffeinated beverage, “in the form of Jell-O and nasty mac and cheese.”

“I don’t know if you should be drinking caffeine,” she commented wistfully.

“Aunt Cass, I haven’t had caffeine for weeks. The withdrawals alone could’ve killed me.” The look on both their faces instantly made Hiro regret bringing up a death joke. “Sorry. Too soon.”

“Too soon,” she agreed.

His hot older brother finally trudged his way into the kitchen. Yes, he was still hot, Hiro didn’t care that Tadashi was his brother, or mad at him, or blamed him for all the woes of his life. Still hot. Without a word, Tadashi grabbed a bag of chips and walked back into the living room to watch TV. “I’m glad Tadashi isn’t making my homecoming any more awkward than I am.”

“I heard that,” Tadashi said from the other room, and Hiro’s cheeked pinked.

“Don’t worry about him,” Cass said softly. “That’s my job, and he’ll be fine. You just have to let him get used to the new you.”

“I think he wants to return the new me for the old me.”

She sighed. “Give it time.”

Hiro shrugged it off and pounced on his hot pastry when the bell dinged on the toaster.

“Chew your food,” Aunt Cass admonished.

“It’s soft. I don’t even need teeth to eat it.” Although the frosting nearly burnt his tongue, he wolfed it down. “Anyway, I’m going to my room. I’m sure my computer missed me while I was laid up.”

“Ok, Sweetie.”

Hiro crossed the living room, tried to ignore Tadashi lounging on the couch all sexy-like with a bag of chips resting on his stomach, and totally failed at it. He hopped the stairs two at a time until he got to the landing and then stopped.

Aunt Cass came out of the kitchen and started to comment on why Tadashi was watching TV, he never watched TV, but stopped mid-sentence when she noticed Hiro was frozen on the stairs, feet on different steps, hand on the banister. “Hiro? Is something wrong?” She walked over to the stairs and Tadashi sat up and turned around to look at him.

“Um, I don’t remember where my room is.” Hiro felt both their eyes on him as he stared at the top of the stairs.

From below, Aunt Cass squeezed his hand reassuringly, “Remember, the doctors said dismissive amoeba-”

“Dissociative amnesia,” Tadashi corrected casually.

“Yes, dissociative amnesia can’t just affect memories of one thing in your life. They said you might discover other things you can’t remember.”

Hiro sank into a sitting position on the stairs. “This sucks so bad.”

“It’ll be ok.”

“I’ll show you,” Tadashi said, getting up. Hiro openly gaped at him.

“Oh, that would be nice. Thank you Tadashi.” Their aunt kissed his cheek and watched as the boys ascended the stairs together.

*

“Here’s the secret abode,” Tadashi opened the door in the hallway upstairs for Hiro. He walked in slowly trying to remember his room, observing his bed on one wall, his desk, a mess of printed schematics, pens, and notes, and the view of the sky out his window. Nope he didn’t recognize it. Tadashi followed him in as he realized the room turned in an L-shape and there was another bed around the corner. Tadashi went over and sat down on it. What the hell?

“We share a room?” Hiro asked disbelievingly.

“Yup, isn’t it great?”

That didn’t sound to enthusiastic. Two could play at that, “ _Sure_.”

Tadashi sighed, got up, closed their door, and sat next to Hiro on his bed. “Listen, I know it seems like I’m mad at you.”

“Nah,” Hiro said sarcastically.

“I’m not. I’m just… I just miss my brother.”

“Well, you might not get him back. You know the prognosis. The memories might come back or they might not.”

“I’m sorry I’ve been an asshole. Don’t think I won’t be there regardless what happens.” Tadashi grasped his hand and Hiro couldn’t help feeling a warmth spread deep in his stomach.

“Thanks,” he managed. All too quickly Tadashi let go and crossed the room to his computer.

When Hiro went to bed that night, he could still feel the lingering warmth of Tadashi’s hand on his.

*

Spending a week with Tadashi in their room was going to be the end of him. Every morning Hiro would invariably awake with a morning erection courtesy of his raging hormones. If he did the rough calculations correctly in his head, his blood-testosterone level was at about 10-freaking-%. Something Tadashi’s Baymax medical assistant bot, something of a project he’d been working on (thankfully stored at home during the fire in the Robotics Lab) and beta testing on Hiro, inconveniently reminded him of, usually in front of other people. 

“I will scan you now,” it said in its too-pleasant voice.

“Don’t scan me!”

“Scan complete. The color of your face and expression indicate you are embarrassed. Do not feel embarrassed. It is normal for human males experiencing pubescence to have random erections, often multiple times a day,” Baymax tried to helpfully explain… as Tadashi walked in the room after his morning run and subsequent shower, shirtless.

The thing was, these weren’t really random arousals. Tadashi seemed to find any excuse to walk around the room without a shirt, and once in only a pair of boxer briefs. It was like they were supposed to be brothers or something. Oh yeah, Hiro kept conveniently forgetting that detail. Anyway, the last thing Hiro needed was Baymax announcing to the whole house the state of his 14-year-old dick.

But Tadashi would just laugh and refuse to turn Baymax off, using the reasoning the scans and constant attention from the bot would be good for monitoring any possible abnormalities in his condition. Hiro thought that was a rather flimsy excuse, but enjoyed any time Baymax asked, “On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” Tadashi would come running in, looking into his forced-wide-open eyes, feeling the back of his head for any external swelling around the couple stitches there, and checking over Hiro’s whole body for any numbness. Yeah, that was the best part. Tadashi’s fingertips would graze over his extremities and he’d ask, “Can you feel that? Good. Can you feel that? Ok.” Hell yeah, Hiro could feel it. And he’d giggle uncontrollably when Tadashi got to the bottoms of his feet. He was loath to admit it, but he kind of got turned on when Tadashi accidentally tickled his feet. Luckily the laughing hid his blushing and curling into a ball hid other more obvious bodily announcements of approval. 

Sure it was weird being attracted so completely to his brother, but he decided after the fourth or fifth day of endless attention, he wasn’t going to think of Tadashi as his brother anymore. If he couldn’t wrap his mind around the concept, why force it? Unfortunately, it made falling for Tadashi that much easier. He was so caring. After his morning runs and showers, while it was Hiro’s turn to shower (and have eye-crossing orgasms wash down the drain), Tadashi would make him breakfast and even carry it to their room for him. He’d try to help Hiro remember some of his forgotten robot ideas, including his nanobots, physically lost in the fire and conceptually lost in his amnesia. He didn’t even remember he’d used that project to try to gain acceptance into San Fansoyko Institute of Technology until Tadashi regaled him with how well he performed on stage in front of the head of the Robotics Department.

But all that was gone now, expect for Tadashi and his memory of it. The institute was facing tough times rebuilding not only that part of the campus, but also repairing its tarnished reputation. There were many dropouts over the last few weeks and new students were slim to recruit with the accident hanging over the institution’s head. Rumor was even Professor Callaghan was almost sacked. Hiro wished he could remember meeting him. That Tadashi though! He saved Prof. Callaghan while getting major smoke inhalation, practically burning his lungs from the inside out, and then rescued Hiro by getting him help before his brain exploded in his head. What wasn’t there to love about Tadashi? Did he say love?

Hiro was sitting at a computer in the garage they used as a makeshift amateur robot construction facility, when he thought of the L-word. Was he really falling in love with Tadashi? He knew he’d been crushing on him since the time he woke up, but was love the right word for what his feelings were evolving into. Tadashi was sitting on the other side of the garage, typing away furiously, utterly oblivious to Hiro’s conflicted feelings. It was that innocence that drew Hiro even closer. He needed to clear his head. 

“I’ll be upstairs,” Hiro said getting up.

“You, ok?” Tadashi asked.

“Yeah, just tired.”

The older boy looked concerned, but turned back to his work.

In his room, Hiro lay down and closed his eyes, Tadashi swirling through his every thought. If only things were different between them.

The next thing he knew he was being woken up by a gentle shake of his shoulder. The smell of warm miso soup filled the room and the waning sunlight through the window made Hiro realize it was late afternoon. 

“Thought you might be hungry,” Tadashi said with a crooked grin and a glance at a tray of soup and fizzy drink on Hiro’s desk.

Hiro laughed breathlessly, “Aw, you shouldn’t have.”

“Scan complete.”

“Damnit, Baymax.”

“Relax,” Tadashi held Hiro down from trying to sit up. “I had him scan you so I could double-check his calibrations are correct. Stay there.” Tadashi got up and returned with a small black bag. He pulled out some basic medical equipment and began a quick rundown.

First, he pricked Hiro’s finger, “See, that didn’t hurt,” for a glucose and cholesterol test. Hiro watched fascinatedly as Tadashi drew his blood using a tiny straw against the droplet on his fingertip then placed it on a slide and into a little digital machine. “That’ll take a couple minutes, so I had to do that first. Next…” He put the buds of a stethoscope in his ears and unexpectedly put his hand up Hiro’s shirt with the metal chest piece.

“Brrr!” Hiro shrank away from the cold brass plate on his chest.

“Sorry,” Tadashi took it out, breathed a warm breath on it, and replaced it over Hiro’s heart. Hiro felt Tadashi’s forearm against the front of his bare abdomen and it sent a shiver up his spine. If Tadashi felt it, he didn’t acknowledge it. Hiro watched as Tadashi closed his eyes to listen better to his heartbeat. He reached up involuntarily and placed his hand on Tadashi’s arm, covering his bicep, and Tadashi silently smiled at the touch, but didn’t let it distract him from counting the beats. “All right, sit up.” Tadashi then moved the stethoscope to Hiro’s back and asked for big breaths. Hiro found it reminiscent of being hugged as Tadashi listened to his lungs.

Finally, there were the more hands off stuff like blood pressure gauge to his skinny upper arm, temperature taken from a fancy thermometer to his forehead and neck, etc. After all the manual findings were tallied, Tadashi checked them to Baymax’s and found they were comparable, plus or minus a percentage point or two.

“Mind if we repeat this a couple times a day, just to make sure Baymax isn’t fudging the numbers somehow.”

“No, I don’t mind,” Hiro answered more breathily than he intended and blushed a bit.

Tadashi just smirked, “Cool, thanks for helping.”

_No, thank you, Tadashi._ Hiro may or may not use the new thought of Dr. Tadashi giving him a physical the next time he showered.

And so it went. In the morning and before bed, Tadashi would examine Hiro’s vitals and compare them to Baymax’s scans. Each time, Hiro found new ways of accessing Tadashi physically – the touch on the bicep when listening to his heartbeat, wrapping his arm around Tadashi’s broader shoulder, with his hand resting on his hairline on the back of his neck while listening to his lungs (god, that neck!), squeezing the bulb on the blood pressure cuff together, Hiro’s fingers over Tadashi’s. Hiro would steal the thermometer from Tadashi after he took his temperature to take Tadashi’s too. Then he’d touch the back of his hand to his forehead and press his fingertips to his pulse point, pretending to see if he could guess to the point-one degree what Tadashi’s temperature was.

It brought them closer and soon Hiro realized Tadashi didn’t seem distressed that Hiro didn’t remember him as a brother. Even Aunt Cass noticed the difference in them and dramatically hugged all three of them together often.

One day, Tadashi stopped typing on his computer for a moment. “You know, Hiro, I think I’m ok with you without your memories.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“No really. You’re still you. I guess that’s what scared me. I thought you’d be a different person, but you’re still the coolest 14-year-old, I know.”

“But the real question is, how many 14-year-olds do you even know?”

Tadashi laughed. “You know what I mean. I love you, little bro.”

Hiro blushed despite the foreign sounding word ‘bro.’ He didn’t know what to say, and scratched the back of his head, “Uh, thanks.”

Tadashi pulled him into a big hug, and Hiro just melted into him.

Later that night, they were going through the motions of vitals testing. Tadashi had Baymax scan Hiro as he lay prone in bed, foregoing his shirt this time. It just got in the way of the stethoscope, Hiro had explained when Tadashi gave him a questioning look. Regardless Tadashi started his manual ministrations. This time was different though. Hiro could feel the heat coming off Tadashi’s body directly onto his little bare chest as he hugged him for the lung listening. They were so close and Hiro’s body and mind begged for more – anything really. And with Tadashi’s voice repeating ‘I love you, little bro’ in his head, when Tadashi pulled away after the lung listening, Hiro moved forward and pressed his lips to Tadashi’s, his hand still on the back of his neck, just at the hairline as always.

They stayed motionless in that moment, and Hiro wondered if this was what suspended animation felt like. He had time to feel the contours of Tadashi’s lips through his own. Tadashi’s arms hung in the air, mid-action as if someone had captured them on video and paused the recording. Hiro tilted his head and pressed further into to the kiss, hoping it would spur Tadashi to put those long arms around his slight frame. He couldn’t imagine this being any better.

But Tadashi didn’t respond with a hug. He jolted up and fell off the edge of the bed. When Hiro looked into his face, he saw wide eyes, eyebrows virtually above his forehead, and a shocked O for a mouth.

“What the hell, Hiro?” Tadashi finally got out.

_Shit_ , this wasn’t good. Hiro couldn’t think of anything to say. The hottest and closest guy to him on earth was rejecting him, and he didn’t have an explanation, a justification, to backpedal away from the line he’d just crossed.

“What were you thinking?” Tadashi said, collecting his gear hastily and wiping his lips as if to get the feeling of Hiro’s kiss off them.

Hiro opened his mouth to speak, but words – where the _hell_ were his words?

“Nevermind! I don’t want to know. This is seriously screwed up. I can’t believe this. Hiro?” His frustration was clear and cutting. “Say something!” 

What could he say that would make this better? How could he rationalize it in a way Tadashi, with all his memories, could understand? Where was that suspended animation crap when he needed it? He needed time to think out his answer, but Tadashi wasn’t giving any.

“You know what. Screw you, Freak.” Tadashi opened the bedroom door and blundered out. And like that, Hiro was alone in a suddenly too-large bedroom with only Baymax standing there innocently.

Tadashi forcefully poked his head back in, “Baymax, come.”

Baymax looked at Tadashi, then at Hiro. “My patient is here.”

Tadashi grunted in agitation, “Whatever,” and after a few ominous stomps on the stairs, Hiro heard the front door to the house slam.

After a moment of aching silence, he finally thought of the words he’d had in his head the whole time. “I love you,” he murmured brokenly to the empty doorway, tears brimming over his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any spelling, grammar, or editing issues. I proofread everything by myself and I miss stuff.
> 
> Let me know what you think. I'll probably continue writing the story whether people think it's good or bad, just to see where it goes and hopefully how it ends.


	3. Where?

Washed Out

Chapter 3: Where?

“Scan complete.”

Hiro slowly blinked open his eyes. For a vague moment, he thought Tadashi would be in their bedroom, standing over him waiting to double check Baymax’s physical scan. But when he turned over, Tadashi’s bed was untouched and the room empty.

“Baymax, you don’t have to scan me anymore. Tadashi’s not here to calibrate you.”

“I am detecting lowered levels of serotonin and dopamine. Are you feeling well?”

“I’m fine,” Hiro rolled back over and covered his head with a blanket.

“Oversleeping is a symptom of depression. When you feel bad, you should take comfort in friends and confide in someone about your problems.”

“I want to be alone,” he mumbled.

“I will contact your friends now…”

“What?!” Hiro jumped up, got tangled in his sheets, and fell upside-down on the floor. “Ow!”

Baymax waddled closer. “I heard the sound of distress. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?”

“I’m not hurt. And don’t contact anyone.”

“Sweetie?” Aunt Cass called from downstairs. “I got a text from Baymax. He says you want to talk. Are you ok?”

“I’m fine!” he yelled back. “Baymax is just malfunctioning.”

“Actually, I am operating at 100% efficiency.”

“Shut up,” Hiro said as he quickly tried to extricate himself from his bedding. His blanket was wrapped around his leg and was still tucked into the end of his bed, and his sheet was trapping his arms next to his body in a sort of Hiro burrito. “Help me with this will you?”

Baymax looked at his hands then back to Hiro and blinked. “I’m afraid my hands were not made for dexterity.”

“A lot of good you are. Tadashi definitely designed you.” Realizing he said his brother’s name made his face fall. Undeterred, he grabbed what fabric he could and peeled everything over his head. Sheets and shirt came off him in a knot.

Suddenly he heard the front door open and close, and Cass said, “Oh hi, Tadashi. Long night?” An unintelligible acknowledgement followed.

“Ah, crap. Baymax stall him,” Hiro said, jumping up and tugging crazily at the blanket around his thigh.

“Stall who?”

“Tadashi!” he whispered loudly.

“I contacted Tadashi for you. Why would I stall your treatment?”

Hiro blushed. “You what?” He could hear footsteps coming up the stairs.

“You only have two contacts,” Baymax admitted.

Hiro tried to yank his shirt out of the sheets, but he only exceeded in pulling the whole thing off the bed. He jumped on the tail end with his feet for leverage and pulled with all his might, landing hard on his butt with his shirt free in hand. When he looked up, Tadashi stood in the doorway. Hiro was sure his blush extended down to his very exposed chest.

Tadashi looked away immediately and walked past him to his side of the bedroom. “I noticed you’ve turned Baymax against me.”

“What?” Hiro asked, confused.

“I got your text.” He shook the phone in his hand for emphasis.

“That’s not my fault.”

“Whatever, I’m not talking to you right now.” He scooped up his laptop and some papers, stuffing them into a bag.

Hiro felt like he’d been hit in the face. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere,” Tadashi lied.

He didn’t know what got into himself, but Hiro bounced to his feet, pulled his shirt on so fast he torn a stitch at the collar, hurdled himself down the stairs, grabbed the passenger helmet next to the door, and ran outside. He spotted Tadashi’s motorcycle by the garage door and sat on the back, arms across his chest.

“No,” Tadashi said when he appeared outside moments later. “Get off.”

“I’m going with you,” Hiro said stubbornly, looking down at his pajama pants and absolutely not at Tadashi’s face.

“Fine.” Hiro thought maybe he won and looked up, but it was to Tadashi’s back. “You wait there as long as you want. I’ll be inside.”

_Fine,_ Hiro thought. _I can wait as long as it takes!_ He tried to get comfy on the motorcycle and relax. Their were people walking down the street and some started looking at the boy in pajamas on the back of a motorcycle by himself, like a little kid playing pretend at driving it. Then Hiro realized he hadn’t used the bathroom yet this morning and he shifted uncomfortably. He put on a determined face and waited. _As long as it takes._

*

He thought it had been at least fifteen minutes when he walked back inside, embarrassed and crestfallen, but the wall clock told him it had been barely five. He went straight into the downstairs bathroom and let out a huge sigh when pee hit water. Next thing he knew he heard the distinct sound of a motorcycle starting. He willed his bladder into emptying faster but the pipe through which the fluid exited was only so big. It was too late anyway, as the sounds of the engine faded into the distance.

When he finished and flushed, he trudged back upstairs and flopped backwards onto his destroyed bed.

“Treatment has failed,” Baymax almost sounded sorrowful. Hiro could hear the flow of air in the robot’s inflatable body pump itself up in mechanical excitement. “Next treatment!”

“No more treatments,” Hiro hid his eyes in the crook of his elbow.

“Would you like a hug?” Baymax outstretched his arms.

Hiro remained silent.

“Physical contact can alleviate stress and reduce sadness.” The robot took a step closer.

Hiro pretended Baymax wasn’t there.

“It is also proven to increase the brain’s production of serotonin and other beneficial chemicals.” Baymax carefully avoided the discarded bedding as he approached a little closer.

Hiro sat up begrudgingly, “Will it shut you up?”

“Hugs do not require sound.”

“Fine.” Hiro stood and crossed the remaining space. He stood awkwardly in front of Baymax, not sure what to do. Baymax’s arms closed around him before Hiro could commit to anything. The robot’s air circulators hummed softly and it lifted one of its big, soft hands to pat Hiro’s head.

After a moment, the awkwardness passes and Hiro hugged back. He realized Baymax was quite large next to him and its lightweight skeleton was surprisingly strong. “Do you feel better?”

“Yeah, I do,” Hiro said with a gleam in his eye. He had an idea.

*

It took a few weeks, mostly waiting for shipping of the parts, but everything was coming together today. Tadashi had only been home sparingly to do laundry or get something he needed and leave again. It irritated the crap out of Hiro. His older brother didn’t bother saying a word to him and all Hiro wanted was a conversation, anything to patch things up. It’s not like it was Hiro’s fault. Tadashi wouldn’t give him a chance!

Aunt Cass was working at the shop at all hours of the day. It made it easier for Hiro to finish his project that he thought was more and more necessary the longer Tadashi was gone. At first, he wasn’t sure what emotions were driving his newfound creativity, but eventually he realized it was jealousy and maybe some envy too. Where the hell was Tadashi going? And how did Tadashi create such an awesome Baymax bot? The more Hiro studied the workings of Baymax, the more proud of Tadashi he was. And with Hiro’s improvements, Baymax was about to be near perfect. 

It was dark with cloud cover that night in the backyard.

“Wings: check.

“Thrusters: check.

“Magmatics: check.

“… Anything else?”

Baymax blinked, “All systems operational.”

“Awesome,” Hiro said, marveling at his own creation.  He donned the motorcycle passenger helmet to complete his outfit – magmatic kneepads, shoes, and gloves, and of course his blue hoodie and cargo shorts. He climbed onto Baymax’s back, testing each connection point to make sure he wouldn’t fall off. Once he was satisfied, “Ok, let’s lift off and hover.”

Baymax was outfitted with a rigid back plate for Hiro to stick to that had wings for stabilization at speed, compact air thruster boots, and a helmet for navigation and wide-angle scanning. He still looked like a miniature white blimp, but Hiro could worry about that later. The boots powered up and slowly Baymax elevated off the ground.

“You’re better at this than I thought.”

“Thank you. However, I fail to see how this helps with your treatment.”

“You want me to talk out my feelings, right?”

“That treatment failed,” Baymax said apologetically.

“Not if we find Tadashi and force him to talk to me. Take us higher and scan for him!” 

Baymax complied. Hiro was in awe of the feeling as they climbed into the air over the city block. It was the most amazing thing ever, feeling the wind on his face and nothing holding him to the ground. He could get used to this. “Tadashi is not in the immediate vicinity.”

“Take us to the next section of the city, it shouldn’t take us that long to find him.” 

Hiro had tried the lower-tech approach, sticking a GPS device to Tadashi’s bike when he wasn’t looking, but Tadashi was clever enough to know Hiro would try something like that and always managed to find it and stick it to some other person’s car to throw Hiro off the trail. He’d spent days on different buses trying to catch up to the wrong vehicle. This time, Tadashi couldn’t trick him or hide from him anymore. Baymax would scan for Tadashi’s distinct biological signature and with his new navigation system, carry Hiro right to him.

Flying through the dark clouds didn’t get old, even an hour into their zigzagging flight. Hiro loved the way the city lights refracted off the billowy masses and the cool wetness clung to his skin as they slipped through them. They were halfway across the city when Baymax alerted Hiro of a bio-match.

“Take us down about a block away. We need to do some reconnaissance first and he won’t see us if we approach from the ground.”

Baymax set them down in the urban sprawl and they skulked into a nearby narrow alley.

“Hurry up,” Hiro complained in a loud whisper, running ahead.

“I am not fast,” Baymax stated.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Hiro stopped for the robot to catch up. It was agonizing watching Baymax carefully angle around discarded boxes and debris in the alleyway. “It’s too far to go to wait for you. You’ll just have to catch up to me.” Without waiting for a reply, Hiro crossed the street and slid into the next alley. The nervous energy gurgling in his gut forced him to sprint the rest of the way.

The location Baymax had given was a narrow three-story house sandwiched between taller buildings on either side. There was only a narrow space between the half-height chain link fence surrounding the tiny property and the buildings next door. Hiro crouched along the side and tried to look in the first floor windows. The curtains were drawn and there wasn’t any evidence of light or life in any of the front rooms, which made sense; it was the middle of the night.

He did spot a light in one of the upper windows around the corner. Even craning his neck, he could only see the ceiling of the room. Hiro looked around for somewhere to climb and found a drainpipe on the neighboring brick building. He could stick the toes of his shoes into the grout lines between the bricks and use the pipe to hold onto the wall.

Inching up, more and more of the room came into view and he even started to hear indecipherable conversation coming from within. Once he was eye level with the windowsill, the full room came into view. There was a dark-haired girl sitting idly at her desk, swiveling in her chair, clicking a pen in her hand, and talking softly. Her desk looked similar to Hiro’s, covered in schematics and robot parts, with something that looked like research displayed on the dual monitors. There was some sort of weird looking bicycle hung by hooks on the wall that caught his eye too. He wondered what the wheels were made of. However, a familiar laugh came from the other side of the room and refocused his attention. Hero switched the shoulders he was looking over and nearly fell off the pipe when he saw into the other corner. 

Tadashi was lying on the girl’s bed in shorts and a t-shirt, a stripe of light skin on his side visible where his shirt had ridden up, knees supporting a laptop he wasn’t paying attention to. Hiro could tell it was her bed because the comforter was the same dark purple color as the streak that ran through her hair. Why was Tadashi on this girl’s bed, relaxing, without a care in the world? It made Hiro’s blood boil thinking of one specific conclusion. He’d been distraught for weeks attempting to get Tadashi to talk to him, to stay just a few minutes longer at home, figuring out where he went and if he’d ever come back when he left. And there Tadashi was, lying in some girl’s bed doing who knows what with her on his off-time.

Hiro’s imagination ran wild with all the possibilities of Tadashi’s betrayals. What if he had kissed lips that had already kissed hers? Hot tears stung his eyes as he wiped his lips of the phantom presence of that brother-stealing trollop. Hiro turned away, unable to look any longer. He slid down the pipe like a fireman, stalked furiously to the front of the house, and pounded on the front door until lights came on through the nearby windows.

Someone peeked through the curtain and seconds later the door opened wide to the girl from upstairs. “Yeah, what do you want?” she said, popping a bubble from her gum, then looking behind him like he was no longer important.

Hiro was about to declare war, but the squeaky bouncing coming from behind him made him lose his train of thought.

Baymax forced himself in front of Hiro, a finger pointing angrily in the air. “We are here to force Tadashi to speak to Hiro!” he announced.

Hiro slapped a hand to his face.

“Hi, Baymax,” the girl said. And, oh great, the girl already knew the robot. This was just getting better and better. “Tadashi, I think your little brother is here.”

Hiro got his bluster back when she said Tadashi’s name. “Who are you?”

“I’m Gogo and you must be Hiro, right?” she reached out her hand.

Hiro just looked at it. “Why’s Tadashi here?”

“Whoa, kid! He just said he needed a place to crash for a while. No need to get upset. Do you want to come in?”

“I’m not upset,” he said louder than he intended, crossing the threshold.

“Hiro?” Tadashi said from the stairs. “What are you doing here?”

“What are _you_ doing here?”

“No, you’re the one that showed up out of the blue, yelling your head off. What’s going on? And what did you do to Baymax? What are you wearing?”

“I made some upgrades. And this is totally your fault. You ran away!”

Gogo piped up, “I think I’ve heard this story. I’m going to make some tea.” She gave a forceful look at Tadashi then turned and walked toward the kitchen.

“What did you tell her?” Hiro said frantically.

Tadashi glanced around nervously and led Hiro into the living room. “Nothing,” he said finally. “You think I’d tell someone what happened.”

Hiro blushed, “I guess not.”

“I know why you’re here, Hiro. I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

Baymax followed them into the room. “We are here to force you to talk to Hiro. It is for his treatment.”

“Baymax…” Tadashi started, then dropped his head. “Hiro, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not a freak.” Hiro said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I know. I didn’t mean what I said, but I did say it, and I couldn’t take it back. At first I was mad at you, wondering what you were thinking. But I realized, you may be the same person you were before the accident, but you don’t see _me_ the same way anymore.” Hiro sat in silence, absorbing each word slowly. “I get it now. I understand where your feelings are coming from because you have a new point of reference for me. So I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I realized, maybe, I need to develop a new point of reference for you. I can’t treat you like a brother anymore because to you… you’ve never had one.” Tadashi stuttered on the last word, his eyes slightly wet.

“I’m sorry,” Hiro said, realizing the anguish Tadashi must be feeling. He didn’t even consider that, in a way, Tadashi did lose his brother in that explosion.

“It’s not your fault you lost your memory, it’s mine. I was so stupid to run into that fire, leaving you out on the street.”

“But you wouldn’t have saved Mr. Callaghan!” Hiro protested. He refused to allow Tadashi to take the blame for this. “And I’m still alive. You didn’t lose me. I’m still here… You’re the one that left.” He said the last part more quietly, trying not to be accusatory.

“I know. I keep making stupid mistakes.”

“Aunt Cass says only geniuses make stupid mistakes,” Hiro smiled despite himself.

“Yeah,” Tadashi laughed. He got up and Hiro followed suit. They hugged and Tadashi ruffled Hiro’s hair.

“So I made some tea before I walked in on this horrifying spectacle.” Gogo announced.

“Thanks, I’ll get it.” Hiro blushed disentangling himself from Tadashi. He forgot how good it felt to be so close to him.

“Good, because I wasn’t going to get it for you.” When Hiro was out of the room, she winked at Tadashi, “I like him.”

Hiro brought the tea up to Gogo’s room where they all hung out. Gogo was apparently a mechanical engineering student and Tadashi’s best friend. They had worked professionally together since they met at the institute a year ago. She was the strong and silent type except when Hiro started asking questions about her bike. Where Hiro had used a magmatic system to stay secured to Baymax’s back during flight, she had used electromagnetic wheels to create near-zero resistance for lightning fast speeds. Tadashi sat back and watched with a smile on his face as the two talked about their love affair with magnets.

“What’s Tadashi been working on since he’s been here?” Hiro asked.

Gogo rolled her eyes, “Nothing. He’s been useless since you too had your little fight.” 

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Tadashi complained. 

“He doesn’t even give good criticism anymore,” she continued. “I told him to woman up and go talk to you, but apparently when Tadashi said you were smarter than him, he was right. You beat him to it.”

Hiro turned to Tadashi with wide eyes. “You said I was smarter than you?”

“I admit to nothing,” Tadashi said, conveniently finding something really interesting to look at on his laptop. A giant smile grew on Hiro’s face, prominently showing off the slight gap between his front teeth. “Anyway, what did you do to Baymax?”

“Smooth one,” Gogo said.

While Hiro would’ve called out Tadashi on the obvious change of subject, he couldn’t resist explaining in great detail all the new work he’d done. If it had been anyone else, they probably would’ve become bored, but Gogo and Tadashi kept asking deeper questions of Hiro’s design decisions and soon all three were going over Baymax – pointing things out, collaborating on some adjustments, and generally giving high praise to an elated Hiro.

“I can’t believe you got Baymax to fly.” Tadashi finally said hours later. “Do you realize what this means? He could get to the scene of an accident and set up a tirade before an ambulance could get there.”

Hiro yawned, sitting on the floor, legs splayed out, with his back against the side of the bed. “Yeah, cool.” He’d mainly wanted to just fly around on Baymax and kick some butt, but his eyes were too heavy to think about anything as coherent as an argument about what would be the best use of the robot’s new abilities right now.

“It’s late,” Gogo said, catching Hiro’s contagious yawn.

“Yeah, ok.” Tadashi said. “Let’s go home. See you, Gogo.” She waved to both of them.

“M’kay.” Hiro stood up slowly and wobbled down the stairs behind Tadashi and Baymax.

“Baymax, fly home,” Tadashi said. 

“I will return there now.” Baymax started his thrusters and jetted off into the sky. 

Tadashi climbed onto his motorcycle and Hiro slid behind him, reaching around his middle to hold on. He closed his eyes and was half asleep against Tadasha’s warm back by the time they pulled into the driveway many miles away at home.

Tadashi had Baymax carry Hiro inside and laid him on his bed. He pulled a blanket over his unconscious little brother and quickly found sleep in his own bed as well.

*

The next morning over breakfast, Tadashi laid some ground rules for the both of them. They were going to be personal friends and professional associates, nothing more. Baymax was going to be a 50/50 shared project and Tadashi was going to help Hiro with the enrollment process at SFIT so he wasn’t moping around at home or getting into trouble in the city. With Hiro’s brains and the institute’s desperate need for new students, they didn’t think it would be that difficult to get him in mid-semester.

Both agreed to the arrangement with ulterior motives however. Tadashi hoped Hiro would start looking up to him as a helpful partner and more of a brotherly figure again, while Hiro secretly planned to do everything in his power to subtly make Tadashi see the new Hiro – a smart, skinny, if not sexy, young man just wanting to get closer to the guy he’d been falling for.

First, Tadashi got administration on the phone and set up an appointment later in the week for Hiro’s interview. Then, he called up a few other people Hiro hadn’t heard of before while Hiro got dressed to go out.

“Where are we going anyway?” Hiro asked, pulling his hoodie on over his t-shirt.

“You’ll see,” Tadashi teased.

Soon they were zooming across town, Hiro’s helmeted head pressed to Tadashi’s back. As they got closer, the destination became obvious.

“The institute?”

“Yep!” Tadashi yelled over the engine. “And the temporary robotic lab!” 

“Awesome,” Hiro whispered to himself. He didn’t have any memories of the original lab that blew up, but Tadashi and his aunt had said it had been a futuristic glass palace of tech. Hiro couldn’t wait.

When they got there, construction was already underway on the new Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab building. The foundations were dug and steel pilings were poking into the blue sky like giant hypodermic needles. Tadashi directed Hiro’s attention to the portable bungalows set up across the way from the construction zone. The squat, beige trailers were less than disappointing, but Hiro tried to keep up his enthusiasm at least for Tadashi’s sake.

They walked into open of the first bungalows where Gogo was waiting for them. Inside was a white room with some desks and computers set up. Most of the people didn’t look up from their screens. After greeting her, Hiro followed the two of them back outside.

The noise of the construction next door was constant and Hiro was getting less excited by the second. “Unfortunately it’s not fireproof, but welcome to the Nerd Lab,” Gogo said, ushering Hiro into the largest of the bungalows. When the door shut, all the sound from outside was gone. “Like that?” she smiled at Hiro’s surprise. “We took the benefit of retrofitting the place with a sound cancelling system and a new sound dampening material made by the talented Honey Lemon here.”

“Hey Tadashi,” Honey said, spinning around in her chair at the sound of her name. “Oh! Hi Hiro! I’m so glad I finally get to meet you.” She took the liberty of shaking his hand vigorously.

“Uh, hi!” Hiro said unsurely. 

“Wait, wait. You’re going to love this!” She ran around him to a complex chemical station, grabbed a whipped cream can and sprayed it over both his ears. Tadashi and Gogo both giggled silently to themselves as Hiro stood in disbelief. Next thing he knew, Honey Lemon seemed to be screaming with all her might in his face, but all he heard was a very faint vibration coming from in his skull. He looked around and everyone else was plugging their ears and moving their mouths very pronouncedly to get Honey to stop. She didn’t pay them any mind as she scooped a handful off the side of Hiro’s head. “Cool, huh?” Hiro could hear out of one ear again.

“Cool,” he agreed, scraping the stuff off the other side of his head.

“Chemically created microfibers link molecularly and bounce the sound waves around like mirrors until all the energy dissipates. I don’t think the university is going to get their deposit back on this building after the owner finds gallons of this stuff in the walls.” She shrugged. “Anyway, photo time!” She took out her phone and crushed her face next to his and said, “Cheese!” Hiro hoped he was smiling and not looking completely dumbfounded. “It was nice meeting you. I hope we see you around here more often. Now I have to get back to work. The metal for the construction sight isn’t going to paint itself… unless I make it. Bye!” She jumped back into her chair and started typing furiously on her keyboard.

Tadashi put his hands on Hiro’s shoulders and led him away. “She’s a little quirky, but we all love her to death. And over here is Wasabi’s station.”

A burly, dark-skinned man stood next to some sort of projection machine. “Hello, Hiro. Prepare to be amazed.”

“Hi,” Hiro kind of waved, still in shock over Honey’s hyper silly personality.

Wasabi flipped a switch and the projector narrowed its light emitter to a single point and the air around it started to shimmer.

“Cool. What is that?”

“Hey, hey! Behind the red line,” Wasabi pointed to the strip of tape on the floor. “If you touched the light, it would slice your hand clean in half.”

“Whoa!” Hiro’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“The laser is heating the air into plasma. I’m still working on a 3D version to make shapes. I wish the construction guys would test my lasers on their scrap material. It would probably save them some time with building and clean up. All they seem to be good at doing is backing away slowly.”

“I’ll test it for you,” Hiro said excitedly, still mesmerized by the bluish light swirling tightly around the laser light.

“No, you won’t,” Tadashi said.

“But-”

“If I see one weaponized laser installed on Baymax, I will pull you off the project.”

“It wouldn’t be weaponized, per-se.”

“You sit here and don’t get into trouble,” he said. “I’m going to grab a snack from the cafe. You want anything?”

“Nah, I’m good. Is this your station?”

“Yes.”

“Why doesn’t it have anything on it?” It was in the back corner, only a school computer on the desk.

“I had been working from home after the fire, but then…” Tadashi paused. They didn’t have to rehash old arguments.

Hiro slouched in the office chair. “Could you get me some gummy bears?”

“Sure,” Tadashi smiled.

When Tadashi was gone, Hiro got bored quickly and decided to wander over to Gogo’s station. “ _So_ , Gogo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi. Those aren’t your real names right?”

“Obviously,” Gogo stated. “Could you hand me that sonic screwdriver?”

“Uh, sure.” Hiro found it on the workbench and handed it over. Gogo popped another bubble from her gum and eyed the floating wheel of her bike. “So do you guys like come up with your own names or-”

“Why don’t you ask Fred?” She pointed to the giant stuffed reptile-fish looking thing lying in an oversized beanbag chair.

“Um, how would talking to a dummy help?”

“Hey kid! That was rude.” The dinosaur sat up, the top of its head flipping behind its neck, revealing a human face.

“Sorry!” Hiro jumped back. “I didn’t know there was somebody in there.”

“The name’s Fred,” he extended a scaly paw, “school mascot by day, but by night… I’m also the school mascot.”

“Cool, so what are you supposed to be?”

“What do you mean? Can’t you tell? I’m the SFIT Godzilla!” Fred proceeded to roar and stomp around the room.

“Oh yeah, I get it.” Hiro rubbed the back of his head. He looked nothing like what Hiro would picture Godzilla to look like.

“Maybe you would’ve recognized me if Honey actually made the fire breathing potion I asked for.”

Hiro laughed, “That would be awesome.”

“I know!” Fred threw his hands in the air. “But she said that wasn’t real science.”

“And it’s not.” Honey walked by, kissing Fred on the cheek. “Hiro, don’t encourage him. His comics and obsession with Japanese monster movies are bad enough.” 

“But Honey Lemon, my sweet, no school could compete with us if our mascot breathed fire!” He spun her around in a circle. 

“I think you’re powerful enough,” Honey kissed him again and returned to her station to mix chemicals and record their reaction.

“She thinks I’m powerful,” Fred whispered too close to Hiro’s ear for his comfort and winked at him.

He absolutely kept the visual of those two getting it on out of his mine. “So why did Gogo ask me to ask you about everyone’s nicknames?” Hiro had a suspicion, but wanted to change the subject quickly.

“I create them all!” Fred said, lounging back into his beanbag chair. “Gogo is fast with her mind and matter. Honey Lemon is the sweet, sweet sunshine of my life. And Wasabi-”

“I spilled wasabi on my shirt, _one time_ ,” Wasabi whined.

“Cool, so are you going to nickname me?” Hiro asked.

Fred looked him up and down. “I don’t know. It hasn’t come to me yet. Besides who wouldn’t want to be named Hiro.”

Hiro blushed at that and pretended to rub his face absentmindedly hoping no one would notice. Luckily Tadashi walked back in with snacks for everyone and the day continued with everyone working on their projects and giving input to each other. When the sun started to set over the bay city, he didn’t want to leave, but it wasn’t like he was going to miss a chance hugging Tadashi from behind on the back of his motorcycle to get home.

*

After working with the crew from the “Nerd Lab” for a couple days, Hiro had some ideas for a project he could propose to the Robotics Department Board. He decided to keep it a big secret to surprise everyone if he could pull it off. He even refused to tell Tadashi about his concept after a particularly intense tickle torture session. Only after Hiro feared Tadashi would notice the arousal in his cargo shorts, did he remind him of how un-business-partner-like he was acting. Tadashi quickly apologized, but Hiro thought he had scored some points there if the darkening of his brother’s cheeks were to be believed.

One evening after Tadashi had called it a night earlier than usual, Hiro was working on a new system for Baymax in the garage when he realized he’d forgotten to take a tool home from the lab. He grinned devilishly, delighted at an excuse to test out the latest beta of Baymax’s flight system. In the backyard, Hiro climbed on its back and they whooshed off toward the campus.

As they approached from above, Hiro noticed the construction lights were still on. It was strange the school would pay for third shift work to be done. He had Baymax land on the far side of campus and left him there to go investigate. He was sneaking in the shadows of the builds toward the construction site when he heard voices.

“You’re pouring too much money into the rebuilding project. People are going to get suspicious.”

“All the Board can see is funding, nothing more. You worry too much, but I suppose you do have reason to worry.”

“Don’t bring that up. We had a deal-”

“And we still do.”

Hiro was intrigued and crouched into some bushes to follow them.

“I still can’t believe the Board signed your terms.”

“They didn’t have much of a choice after that timely accident." 

“You’re welcome.”

“Should I be thanking you?”

“I almost got myself and a student killed over that. That’s the least you could do.”

Hiro was fuming at the turn of the conversation and crawled through the bushes to try to see their faces, although he was pretty sure Professor Callaghan was one of them. 

“No, the least I could do was rebuild your department and save your job.”

“Wait,” there was silence and Hiro pressed his body to the ground. “Did you hear that?”

“No.”

“We shouldn’t talk about this in the open. If you need to see me again, I’m in my office most nights.”

“I truly hope we won’t have to make this a habit.”

The two men parted and went separate ways. It was too out in the open for Hiro to follow either of them. He wished he could’ve at least seen their faces. Was what they said true? Did they mastermind the whole fire for some reason? But why? All Hiro knew was whatever they did put Tadashi’s life at risk once and he wasn’t about to let that happen again. He was going to get to the bottom of this and he could think of some new upgrades for Baymax that could help him. He rushed to the lab bungalow, grabbed more supplies than he originally intended, and dashed back to Baymax.

Tadashi was still in his nightclothes when he came looking for Hiro in the garage the next morning. Hiro looked over his monitor with circles under his eyes and saved and closed the program before Tadashi could see what was on screen.

“Pulling an all-nighter?”

“Yeah,” Hiro stretched innocently. “Just had to get these ideas out of my head and onto paper.”

“Part of your secret project?” Tadashi quirked an eyebrow.

“You could say that.”

Tadashi took the ball cap off his head and ran his other hand through his hair. The bottom of his white t-shirt lifted up and Hiro, even with sleep-blurred vision, practically salivated at the exposed skin. “You better be well rested for tomorrow. Don’t forget you have your big interview.”

“I won’t forget,” Hiro said, leaving quickly. “Anyway, I’m going to bed.”

Tadashi laughed as Hiro headed back to the house. “It’s breakfast time,” he called.

“I’ll eat later.”

*

_He was in their house, feeling strange and disoriented, when the whole place suddenly burst into flames. He could feel the heat on his face, just like that night not so long ago. He was screamed at the top of his lungs for Aunt Cass and Tadashi, but he couldn’t hear his own voice. He rushed from room to room, dodging falling debris. He couldn’t find anyone. The two men’s voices from the campus were laughing at his pathetic attempts to navigate the blaze. The smoke was choking him and stinging his eyes, but he wasn’t going to leave the house without them._

_Suddenly, strong arms grabbed him from behind and lifted him up. It was Tadashi, sweating, covered in soot, with terror in his eyes. He carried him down the stairs and into the garage. When the door closed, the roaring of the fire, the smell, the fear of it all, disappeared. Their little makeshift workshop was just as it always looked, computer monitors displaying all sorts of programs and schematics, any spare surface littered with tools or parts of every kind for robot assembly. It was like nothing happened._

_Hiro looked back at Tadashi and he wasn’t sweaty or dirty anymore. He wasn’t paying attention to anything in the room but Hiro – his eyes looking at him not as a brother, but as something else. The next thing Hiro knew, Tadashi closed the small distance between them and mashed his lips to Hiro’s. Hiro’s eyes widened in disbelief then closed, wanting his every sense to absorb this moment. The kiss was frantic and Tadashi’s hands were roaming all over Hiro’s back, beneath his hoodie. Hiro touched back, first feeling the hardness of Tadashi’s chest and the shallow valley where his pecs converged, and then traveling down his sides to the hem of his shirt to get his hands underneath, to Tadashi’s skin._

_Tadashi followed suit and pushed the front of Hiro’s shirt up. He broke their kiss so he could kiss and lick up Hiro’s torso. Hiro wanted to do the same to Tadashi, but he was already being lifted up onto the counter, pieces of equipment and bot parts clattering to the floor around them. Tadashi was grinding into him uncontrollably as he removed Hiro’s hoodie and t-shirt in a single motion over his head. Next, he attacked the zipper and button on the front of Hiro’s shorts, but Hiro pushed him back so he could take Tadashi’s shirt off. Somehow his gray baseball cap stayed fixed to his head in the process. It was Hiro’s turn to kiss between Tadashi’s neck and chest, as Tadashi moaned into the stillness and used his fingertips to softly pinch Hiro’s dime-sized nipples._

_Suddenly Tadashi pinched one a little too hard; Hiro cried out, but Tadashi caught it in another kiss. Their tongues fought back and forth as Tadashi laid Hiro down and slid his fingers over Hiro’s stomach to the waistband of his underwear. Hiro needed Tadashi’s hand around his dick so bad, he bucked his hips hoping to speed Tadashi’s actions, but –_

Hiro slid right between the sheets of his bed and flopped onto the floor in a pile of awkwardly angled teenage limbs and bruised ego. As he sat up, he realized he was hard as a rock and even his nipple still tingled from the phantom pinch of his dream. He got to his feet and quietly snuck into the bathroom across the hall to shower and take care of the unfinished business the dream had left him with. He’d never thought to touch any other part of himself besides his boner, but with the dream will replaying in his head, he squeezed each of the small nubs on his chest and was rewarded with a spectacular conclusion splattering against the shower wall a couple moments later.

Hiro needed to make that dream with Tadashi a reality somehow, at least the sexy part of it. He just wasn’t sure how, or if it was even possible. After the way he reacted the only time Hiro had unintentionally made a move, he had started to doubt Tadashi could feel that way about him.

He decided it wasn’t time to think of such things as impossibilities when he had to put the finishing touches on his presentation for the Board tomorrow. He changed and went back into the garage and starting reviewing all his work one last time.

*

The time of the interview seems to approach like a locomotive arriving at a train station – the closer it got, the slower it arrived. Hiro was kicking his feet anxiously in the hall outside the office, copies of his portfolio in hand, eyes glanced nervously at the clock. Tadashi was there with Aunt Cassie. The others from the Nerd Lab had wished him luck earlier in the day when he first arrived. Aunt Cass was now reading a Popular Mechanics magazine and Tadashi was fiddling with his phone, but glancing up at Hiro every few seconds. Hiro checked to make sure his white dress shirt was tucked into his slacks straight and loosened the tie around his neck just a little.

“Sit down,” Tadashi said, placing a hand on the seat next to him.

“I can’t, I’m too amped up.”

“Relax. You’ll do great. You’re the smartest guy I know.”

“You’re only admitting that because I have to present in like,” Hiro checked the wall clock again, “any second now.”

“You aren’t going to have a nervous breakdown, are you?”

“No,” Hiro scowled at the bad joke. “I’m better like this anyway. I think on my feet.”

Aunt Cass looked up from the magazine. “Just remember, everyone knows you can do it and is rooting for you.” 

“Thanks, Aunt Cass.” He’d never seen her this calm before and he wasn’t positive if that was reassuring.

Hiro decided to sit after all. His knee started bouncing and he unconsciously drummed his fingers on the armrest. Tadashi, without looking up from what he was reading on his phone, put his hand over Hiro’s fingers and held them reassuringly. Hiro’s nerves seemed to flow out of him through the warm touch and his knee stopped bouncing.

The door to the office opened, “Mr. Hamada, the Board will see you know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, thank you all so much for your support. Every kudos and comment means a lot, truly.
> 
> If you see any tags that I might be missing, let me know. I'm updating them as I go.
> 
> Hopefully the dream sequence in this part will tide you over for what may ;) happen in future parts.
> 
> To those of you who waited anxiously for this chapter, I hope it was everything you were hoping for. Is it just me, or are these chapters getting longer and longer?
> 
> Finally, for those already desperately needing the next chapter as much as Hiro needs to feel Tadashi's lips again, I'll be writing all day tomorrow (personal goal set for at least 5K words) which should be a huge chunk of Chapter 4. So you can expect the next part within 2-3 days barring pesky real life events taking me away from the keyboard.
> 
> Regards,  
> Colin


	4. When?

Tadashi and Aunt Cass were worried about Hiro. Ever since he’d walked out the administration office, presentation complete, with a mixture of resentment and dejection on his face, he wouldn’t talk more than a few words a day to them. It had been weeks now and Aunt Cass was still waiting by the mailbox for the letter that would determine Hiro’s educational fate.

When Hiro had entered the office, he didn’t realize Professor Callaghan would be on the Board, but he should have. He should’ve prepared better for his own reactions that he was sure were obvious to the entire Board. It would’ve helped if he could remember his previous encounter with Callaghan before the fire. He presented in such a hostile fashion, he wish he could’ve taken it all back and started over. How was he suppose to showcase his project positively when one of the men who planned the accident that almost got Tadashi killed was sitting just a few feet from him. His aggressive attitude in the Board Room had consequences in the way of pointed remarks and intimidating questions from the table opposite him. He had all the answers of course, but Hiro, even at his young age, knew selling an idea was 90% approach, 10% specifics.

It was a disaster, and by the end of it, he thought the sweetest words were, “You’ll receive word of our decision at a later date.” Hiro was relieved to get out of there.

By the time he climbed into the front seat of the car, he decided he wouldn’t get his hopes up. He knew rejection when he saw it. And by the time Aunt Cass was pulling into the driveway, he had a new glint of determination on his face.

“You ok, Sweetie?” Aunt Cass asked.

“I’ll do it without them.” He grabbed his bag and hopped out of the car without another word.

Tadashi had let the others in the Nerd Lab in on the bad news, and Hiro got commiseration texts from all of them. He didn’t bother to respond. They still seemed hopeful and he didn’t need that right now.

He spent most of his time in the garage, staring at screens until his eyes watered, tinkering with injectors and mixing chemicals he ordered or pilfered from the school’s lab until his hands were stained different colors and began it sting. When he ran out of money, he decided the only way to fund his project was to jump back into the underground bot-fighting scene. He dusted off his trusty remote control robot and made some cursory upgrade.

His family probably thought he was still working late into the night like a madman as he caught a bus to a seedy section of the city called Little America, where most the people were belligerent and corn-fed. He knew the usual spots and soon he was betting his robot against the pot and handily won a fist-sized roll of bills in the first match. He watched the other fights for a while and only entered one more, before calling it a night. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. Or so he thought.

“Hey, Kid,” a guy walked up beside him in the alleyway.

“Uh, hey,” Hiro responded.

“You put up some good fights there. What kind of bot is that?”

“Trade secret.”

The guy laughed and slapped Hiro on the back. “Keeping it close to the vest. I like that. Anyway, I recognized you from a few months ago.” Hiro’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, made a little money off your fights tonight – a shame you didn’t go a few more rounds.”

“I guess I like to keep a low profile.”

“A shame,” the guy repeated. “Listen, you did me a favor tonight. Now I’ll do you one. Take my card.” The guy lifted it between two of his fingers. Hiro just stared as it as they stood at the mouth of the alley. Undeterred, the guy slipped it into the pocket of Hiro’s hoodie. “You call me if you need a favor: backing for a fight, a little pocket change, some muscle. I’m your man.”

“Thanks, uh-”

“Mr. Yama,” the guy shook Hiro’s hand before he knew what was happening. “You have a good night now.” And like that, Mr. Yama turned and walked slowly back down the alley into the shadows.

Hiro pulled the card out of his pocket. There was only a phone number and what seemed to be latitude/longitude coordinates. He stuffed it in his wallet and made the long trip home with a bed of money in his backpack for his little bot to rest on.

*

A couple days later, Tadashi entered the garage rubbing his face timidly. “Hey Hiro, want to visit the guys at the lab?”

“Nah, I’m working,” Hiro didn’t look up from the monitor.

“You sure? They’ve been asking about you.”

“I’ll text them later.”

“Hiro, you don’t talk to anyone anymore.” When he didn’t respond, Tadashi continued, “You know it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get into SFIT.”

Hiro looked up incredulously, “I know that! I’m not just in here doing nothing.” He motioned to the mess of parts and chemicals spread around the garage.

Tadashi looked at his feet. “Everyone just wishes you’d get out a little more. And I want you to enjoy life is all. You’re still so young.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Hiro didn’t need another reason for Tadashi not to like him the way he wanted.

“Well, maybe tomorrow then,” Tadashi shuffled slowly out the door, as if Hiro was going to change his mind at the last minute.

Hiro waited until he heard Tadashi’s motorcycle rumble down the street. He closed the current program on the screen and grabbed his bag before heading out.

It took him five buses, but he eventually found the place according to the GPS on his phone. He tucked the business card back in his pocket and walked around the block to scout the place out. It was midday and there were tons of people bustling around, cars stuck in traffic, exactly what Hiro wanted. It was better to case the place in broad daylight than come for the first time in the middle of the night with no witnesses. The coordinates had led him to a square surrounded by pagoda-style buildings in an infamous part of town. A couple of the structures seemed to be nondescript office buildings, one was a warehouse, and another was a ramen shop. Hiro’s stomach growled, a souvenir from his breakfast-less morning. He decided to pop in. A greeter at the door shouted a welcome and all the cooks behind the counter repeated it at the same volume. Hiro found a seat at the counter and soon a cook took his order. There was another shouted reception and someone took the vacant seat next to him. Hiro minded his own business and waited for his soup.

When the cook came around to take the other guy’s order, Hiro heard the familiar voice over the din of the shop. “Tadashi! What the hell!”

“Hi,” Tadashi said sheepishly.

“Are you following me?”

“Yeah, and now that I know where you’re going, it was a good idea. This isn’t exactly the safest part of town Hiro, and people around hear are going to think you’re just some kid by himself to be taken advantage of.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Remember before your presentation-”

“I was actually trying to forget that.”

“Remember I told you that you were the smartest person I knew. Well, not when it comes to asking for help.”

“I don’t need help,” Hiro said, wishing his ramen would get there faster so he could have an excuse not to talk.

“See, you’re just proving my point. Everyone wants to be there for you and you’re pushing them all away.” Hiro kept his eyes on the countertop. “Hiro?” Tadashi nudged his elbow.

“Did you ever think I don’t want people to see me fail?” Hiro said harshly. “It’s embarrassing.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. You were accepted last year and all of you are working on official assignments for the institute. I’m just working in the garage scrounging for cash and begging for parts.”

“It’s like you’re giving up before even know if you made it.”

“It was pretty obvious.”

“How so?”

Hiro wanted to tell Tadashi about Callaghan and what he’d overheard that night, but that would mean telling him he took Baymax on a flight without supervision, again, and he didn’t want to get into yet another argument. He just had to keep it to himself for now, for Tadashi’s protection and his own sanity.

“Hot bowl for you, Sir,” the cook came with his order.

“Can we talk about this later?” Hiro said to Tadashi.

“When?” Tadashi had a look of disappointment.

“When I get my rejection letter,” Hiro smirked.

Tadashi smiled back, “Fine.” It was so easy for the two of them to make up, Hiro started to think maybe they really were brothers.

Hiro gobbled up his ramen, eating the hardboiled egg first, picking out the red ginger garnish that he hated, then attacking the fatty pork, and finally slurping up the last of the noodles loudly. Tadashi stared open-mouthed at the sight.

“What?” Hiro asked.

“Were you hungry?”

“A little.” He smiled, exposing the gap in his teeth. Tadashi received his order and ate at a more reserved pace. “How can you eat that?” Hiro asked, watching disgustedly as Tadashi ate some of the red ginger.

Tadashi finished chewing. “You know, Wasabi doesn’t like ginger either.”

“Maybe _he’s_ my brother.”

Tadashi laughed.

When both bowls were clean, they left the shop together. In the street, the crowd was busier than ever in the post-lunch hour afternoon. “I’m parked around the corner if you want a ride home.”

“Sure,” Hiro said, and turned to follow. A hand came out of the throng and grasped Hiro’s forearm. “Hey!”

“The Boss would like to see you, Kid,” the guy, dressed in black, attached to the hand, said.

Tadashi pushed the guy. “Don’t touch him.” Suddenly two more guys appeared out of the crowd, grabbing Tadashi by the arms.

“It’s ok,” Hiro said, before Tadashi could retaliate and cause more problems.

“Hiro, what’s going on?”

The guys in black didn’t really give Hiro a chance to respond and they were both forced to the warehouse on the other side of the square. No one in the crowd seemed to notice or care what was happening. Once inside the building, they pushed them upstairs into one of the offices overlooking the warehouse floor. A majority of the building was taken up by a stockpile of illegal bot weapons. Blades, beams, rockets, everything someone would need to outfit a robot army. Looks like whoever they were about to meet had a monopoly on the underground bot-fight black market.

They were locked in the office alone and immediately Tadashi checked Hiro’s arm to make sure he was ok. “What did you get yourself into, Hiro?”

“I don’t know,” Hiro said, pulling his arm back. “I’m fine.”

“Do you know these guys?”

“No, I don’t think I’ve seen them before.”

“This warehouse looks like it supplies all the illegal bot-fighting rings in the city. Have you been fighting again?”

“No, maybe. Just once.” Hiro felt guilty enough without Tadashi accusing him of anything. The look of frustration on Tadashi’s face was plain enough to see. “I’m sorry. I – I just needed the money.”

“You could’ve asked. I have grant money.”

“Not wanting to be a big failure here, remember?” Hiro pointed at himself. Tadashi sighed. “Just let me do the talking, ok? This Boss guy wanted to talk to me. Maybe I can make a deal to let us go.”

“You shouldn’t be dealing with these people at all.”

“A little late for that now,” Hiro frowned.

They didn’t wait long until some more men in black entered the office then someone Hiro recognized walked into the room and sat at the desk. It was the guy in the alley from the other night, dressed much nicer than the jogging suit he had on last time.

“Hello, Hiro.” He motioned for Hiro to sit.

“Hello, Mr. Yama.”

Tadashi stiffened at the name, still standing within arm’s reach of Hiro.

“Boys, can you show Hiro’s friend here how to show some respect?”

Three of the men grabbed Tadashi and forced him away from Hiro. Then one snatched the ball cap off his head, balled his hand into a fist, and punched him in the stomach with it. Tadashi was strong, but with three guys on him, he could barely struggle against them. The guy dropped the hat at Tadashi’s feet.

“This really a friend of yours?” Mr. Yama asked.

Hiro thought quickly, what were the costs of saying yes or saying no. “Not really,” Hiro decided.

“Good,” Mr. Yama smiled. He waved at his men, “Get rid of him.”

Oh no! Hiro hoped he’d made the right decision. There was no backing out now.

“Hiro!” Tadashi yelled as he was dragged out of the office, one of the men all too happily grabbing Tadashi’s hat off the ground and shoving it back on his head. Two of the other men stayed behind with Mr. Yama and Hiro.

“Now to business.”

“What do you want?” Hiro asked angrily.

Mr. Yama laughed, “Didn’t I tell you boys, I liked this kid.” The mirth faded as he stared at Hiro. “I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately. You see, I owe you a favor and I don’t like owing anyone anything, mainly because that means they don’t owe me anything.”

Hiro wasn’t sure where this was going.

“I’m going to do you a favor and then you’ll owe me. See how that works?”

“You still haven’t told me what you want,” Hiro tried to keep the bravado in his voice.

“The real question is: What do you want? But never mind that, I’ll find out what you need and get it for you. Most people don’t know what they want until I give it to them.”

“So, can I go now?” Hiro asked uneasily. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and find out what they did with Tadashi. He’d never forgive himself if something bad happened.

“Yes. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be in touch.”

He didn’t like the sound of that, but he wasn’t going to wait around. He was escorted out of the warehouse, back into the square. The door closed behind him and locked. It was like the whole little incident never happened.

He had to find Tadashi. He raced through the crowded sidewalk down to the corner where Tadashi had originally tried to lead him. There, on the other side of the next street was his motorcycle, helmet still locked onto the seat. So he was hopefully still close by. Hiro ran back into the middle of the square, turning circles, looking for any sign that could help him, but nothing. He checked with the host at the ramen shop, but he said he saw nothing. _Figures_ , Hiro thought. Next, he walked the perimeter of the square, looking down alleys, behind dumpsters, but no hint of Tadashi. Getting so panicky his hands started to shake, Hiro decided to walk around the whole city block that encompassed the square. Maybe something from the outside would give him a clue. Still nothing.

He ran back quickly to Tadashi’s bike, phone in hand, ready to give in and call the police. Sweat dampened the hair covering his forehead as he looked this way and that, one last check his thumb hovering over the Send button on 9-1-1.

“Hiro!” he heard Tadashi’s voice. Hiro spun around and looked into the alley near Tadashi’s bike.

“Tadashi?” Hiro called into the shadows.

“Yeah, back here.”

Hiro ran toward the voice, relieved then astounded. Tadashi was standing over three guys in black, all knocked out. They were all beat up and bruised with at least a couple broken bones between them. Tadashi had a split lip, blood dribbling down his chin onto his shirt, and a blackish bruise on his upper arm. Holy crap, his brother was a bad ass.

“Thank goodness,” Tadashi said. “I was afraid I was going to have to go back in there after you. Come on, lets get out of here.” He gave Hiro his helmet and they sped home as fast as they dared.

When they got inside, they went straight upstairs. Hiro told his side of the story as Tadashi checked him out for injuries. Hiro was untouched to Tadashi’s relief. Then Hiro got a washcloth from the bathroom to dab at Tadashi’s lip. Tadashi quickly filled him in on how those guys were going to throw him into a van, but he twisted out of their grasp and ran down the street to his bike, but decided to hide in the alley instead. Only they saw where he went and cornered him. He had the fight of his life, knocking a knife from one of their hands, using one guy’s baseball bat against him. Hiro’s eyes gleamed at the daring tale. When Tadashi finished the story, he coughed and licked his lip.

“How bad do I look?”

“Not bad,” Hiro said, still in awe. “I’ll get some ice and no one will notice.”

Tadashi laughed, “Ok,” then coughed again.

“What’s wrong?” Hiro’s voice trembled as Tadashi sat down slowly on the floor, his back against the side of his bed.

“I’m fine. Just get me some ice,” his voice sounded strained. But Hiro didn’t move. He stood above Tadashi refusing to leave. Tadashi rolled his eyes like nothing was wrong, but didn’t try to talk Hiro into leaving again either. He looked down at himself instead and saw the blood stains on his shirt. Throwing his ball cap on the bed, he lifted his shirt over his head, revealing the damage Tadashi knew would be visible.

Hiro wanted to cry when he saw the damage. Black and blue welts dotted Tadashi’s ribcage and there was a slice along his lower back with blood he hadn’t noticed before. “Can you do me a favor and get Baymax for me?”

Hiro nodded his head, not trusting his voice. A tear ran down his cheek, but he brushed it away. He left the room and tried not to get himself too worked up as he brought Baymax up from the garage.

While Baymax scanned Tadashi on the bed, Hiro went back to the kitchen to get some ice. He trudged back upstairs slowly, not wanting to have to face the realization that he was to blame for Tadashi’s injuries. Baymax counted six contusions and two shallow lacerations, including his split lip. The robot had him roll onto his side so it could spray an antiseptic and liquid bandage onto the knife wound. A sniffle overcame Hiro as he imagined if the knife had gone deeper and punctured Tadashi’s internal organs. He could’ve died, and for what? Money for Hiro’s stupid secret project?

Tadashi rolled back onto his back. “Thanks for the ice.” Hiro was grateful Tadashi ignored his tears and handed the icepack to him. “Come here,” he motioned. Hiro slumped onto the bed like he was the worst person in the world. Tadashi wasn’t having any of that though and slipped an arm around Hiro’s middle, pulling him in until the boy was snuggled up against him, shuddering in silent sobs. Neither of them spoke nor moved except when the icepack grew too cold on one bump and Tadashi moved it to a different one.

Hiro woke up slowly, disoriented. His arm was thrown over Tadashi’s blotchy stomach, where it moved up and down to his steady breaths. Hiro glanced up and saw Tadashi’s eyes were closed and the cold compress forgotten on the far side of the bed. He checked the time; it just after 10pm. They’d slept through the whole afternoon.

They both smelled rather manly from their ordeal, to put it nicely, and Hiro’s face was disturbingly close to Tadashi’s armpit. He tried to move ever so slightly so he wouldn’t wake his older brother, but the adjustment only made him realize one terribly embarrassing detail of his anatomy pressed along Tadashi’s thigh. Hiro exhaled shallowly. It figured he would be feeling like crap for what had happened, Tadashi was injured for goodness’ sake, and his cock would have a mind of its own. The unfairness of the world was not lost on Hiro in that moment.

When he chose to eventually move, Tadashi stirred at the same time, looked at his surrounds the way Hiro thought he might have when he first awoke, then kissed Hiro on the top of the head. The movement caused Tadashi’s leg to move and he froze.

“Is that your-”

“We are not talking about this right now,” Hiro announced, throwing his hips away from Tadashi’s leg and burying his face, now several shades darker, into his side. “I woke up like this. I’m going to get up and take a shower now because I smell. Then you’re going to take a shower because you smell. Then we can talk about something important like how you almost _died_ today.”

“Almost, but I didn’t. You only have bad men to blame for that, not yourself.”

“Can we talk about this after the showering?”

“Ok,” Tadashi laughed. Hiro got up hastily. “Hiro?”

Hiro froze in place, definitely did not turning around with the tent in his shorts. “Yeah?” he responded unsurely.

“Don’t do that again – I mean, go off on your own like that. Especially now that Mr. Yama is after you.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Again, after the shower, please?” Hiro was sure his whole body was beet-red now.

“Sorry, go,” Tadashi chuckled. Hiro thought he might be doing this on purpose, but analyzing his intentions right now was probably Hiro’s lowest priority at that moment. He could think about that and willing his stubborn boner down in the shower.

After Tadashi showered too, he gathered Hiro and Aunt Cass into the kitchen to discuss things.

“Aunt Cass, Hiro’s been bot-fighting again,” Tadashi said.

“Snitch!” Hiro accused.

“You’re grounded,” Cass said. She looked at Tadashi, “That’s what I’m supposed to say right?”

“No, you don’t have to ground him. It’s just he got into some trouble and now there might be some men looking for him.”

“I’ll call the police,” she said, walking to the phone. Tadashi was going to stop her, but she would insist on doing it anyway. The conversation on the phone was interesting to say the least. “Some men are after my nephew?… No, I don’t know who they are… No, I don’t know what they look like… No, this is not a prank call… Yes, I should probably get some more information before calling you back… Ok, bye.” She hung up the phone. “That didn’t work,” she said.

“I know it’s a big deal,” Hiro said. “But I’ll just lay low for a while, which I’m pretty good at, and let things blow over. Tadashi just wanted to tell you so you could be on the look out for anything suspicious.”

“Thank you, Sweetie. But no more bot fighting or I will ground you. You’ll have to come with me to the bakery every day and I’ll stuff your face with delicious muffins and drinks – oh, and I’ll make you clean the shop up too.”

“Ok, Aunt Cass, don’t worry. I’m never doing that again. Believe me.”

*

So that’s how Hiro found himself being babysat all the time. When Aunt Cass wasn’t home, Tadashi would work with him in the garage or take him to the Nerd Lab to catch up with the others. And when Tadashi wasn’t around, he enlisted Gogo to watch Hiro.

She’d come over on her experimental bike and sometimes let him take it for a spin.

“Whoa!” Hiro exclaimed, as he zoomed straight through a bush at the park.

“Steer ahead of where you need to go, Hiro!” Gogo shouted. He turned to suddenly and he flipped end over end, throwing himself away from the bike and curling into a ball as he landed, just like he was taught. “You ok?” Gogo came running over to him. He sprawled out on the grass, sore but high on adrenaline, and gave her a thumbs-up. She laughed as she approached. “I told you.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get the hang of that. Thank goodness for this padded suit.”

“Thank Honey. It’s her own special blend of injection foam.”

“My butt will thank her later.” He sat up slowly. “I’m exhausted. Mine if we take the bus home? I don’t know if I can handle another ride even on the back of that thing.”

Gogo grabbed the bike, laughing at his expense, and took him back to his house.

“Looks like you have mail,” Gogo said, pointing at the mailbox as they approached.

“I let Aunt Cass get it. She was the one all excited to see if my letter came from SFIT.”

“Aren’t you just a little curious to see if it came?”

“Not really. I know what it’s going to say and-”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I bombed my presentation.”

“Yeah, you never told anyone what happened.”

“Can I just say it wasn’t my finest moment and leave it at that?”

“Well, I’m going to get you’re mail then.”

“Whatever,” Hiro waved her on ahead.

Gogo was sifting through a small stack of envelopes when her eyes widened. “Hiro, it came.”

“This isn’t one of your bad jokes, is it?”

“No, for real.” She handed him the envelope. Indeed, it was addressed to him from the institute.

He started to tear at the side of it, but paused. “I should wait for Tadashi and Aunt Cass. They should be here for this.”

While Hiro was in no hurry to open it and began working in the garage again, Gogo was texting everyone furiously about the news. Within an hour, she had everyone at the house. Tadashi, Gogo, Honey, Wasabi, Fred, and Aunt Cass were all standing around the kitchen island, eyes on the bent up envelope in Hiro’s hands.

As much as Hiro told everyone it was no big deal, his rejection was just going to be official now, a part deep inside him had his heart pounding in his chest and his palms sweaty. He really hadn’t wanted this to be the big spectacle it had turned into, but he couldn’t deny all the people that cared about him the chance to share in the moment.

He tore off the end of the envelope and turned it sideways so the single sheet of paper slid out onto the counter. His fingers clumsily unfolded the letter and read the first paragraph to himself.

“Well, what does it say?” Aunt Cass said.

“Yeah!” Fred chimed in.

Hiro just stared at the paper. His mind did not really comprehend what the words were expressing. He didn’t understand. It didn’t make sense.

Everyone was waiting for Hiro’s reaction or for him to read it out loud, but Gogo was done with waiting. “He’s in shock, he obviously got in.” She snatched the paper from his hand. “Dear Mr. Hiro Hamada, I am please to inform you… See, he’s in.” She tossed the letter into the middle of the island. The group cheered and everyone reached for the letter at the same time to read the rest of it and that seemed to break Hiro out of his disbelieving trance. A smile slowly spread across his face so wide his cheeks would ache later on that night.

“I’m making hot wings!” Aunt Cass said over the hollering and back clapping.

For the rest of the day and into the night, the group talked excitedly about everything SFIT. Fred wanted to give Hiro the full campus tour, since Hiro’d only really hung out in the Nerd Lab. Honey and Wasabi discussed when the new permanent Robotics Department building would open and everyone wanted to know where Hiro would set up his station in the temporary lab. Each person was giving him so much advise, he wasn’t sure he’d remember half of what was said by morning.

It was a surreal experience and, to top it off, Hiro kept catching Tadashi staring at him. Every time he did, Tadashi would just smile at him, nod his head, as if to say he was proud of him without words, and let everyone else talk his ear off about one thing or another. As the hour became late, Aunt Cass started shooing everyone home, Hiro and Tadashi eventually made it upstairs after saying their last good-byes, and changed for bed.

Hiro lost track of time tossing and turning in bed, his mind still raced with possibilities for what the future held. He sighed – not because he miraculously got into SFIT, but because everyone had believed in him except himself and they’d been right all along. The Board had believed in his vision, despite his age and candor. His friends had believed in his abilities, even after he pushed them away. And Tadashi… Tadashi had believed in everything he did. Just thinking about that caused a great warmth to bloom in his chest. Tadashi risked everything for Hiro, up to and including his life, while still finding time to build a robot with the potential to save countless others. It didn’t matter that Hiro might be damaged goods with his amnesia. It didn’t matter that they fought or that Hiro made reckless mistakes. Tadashi would always be there and it made his heart swell and his stomach flutter. There was a longing that burned to escape him and his indecision temporarily faded away. He threw the covers off himself, got up, and walked slowly to Tadashi’s bedside. Before he allowed himself to think about it too much and retreat, he settled on top of the blankets next to Tadashi, facing away so his actions wouldn’t seem too forward.

Tadashi rolled toward the new presence on his bed. When he realized it was Hiro, he asked in a voice heavy with sleep, “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Hiro whispered.

A silence filled the air, but not an awkward or unpleasant one. They just were. Tadashi lifted his covers as an admission that it was ok. Hiro scooted beneath them, closer to Tadashi and his warmth. Their world seemed to contract until they were the only two points of energy left in the universe, gently vibrating from each of their soft breaths. The stillness felt so complete to Hiro that when Tadashi moved his hand to rest it on his upper arm, it felt like a tidal wave threatening to consume him. Tadashi’s thumb drew slow circles on Hiro’s shoulder as if simultaneously reassuring himself and asking if it was ok to go further.

Hiro didn’t remember when he’d stopped breathing, but he appeased his burning lungs with a slow shaky gulp of air when Tadashi’s hand tenderly migrated from Hiro’s shoulder down his slim side, fingers grazing over each of his ribs, finally coming to rest over his stomach. There, any tension in Tadashi’s touch evaporated, leaving only a heat that radiated through Hiro’s abdomen.

Tadashi didn’t move again and fell back into a peaceful slumber. Hiro remained restless a while longer, his heart somewhere between elation and relief. Since the hospital, he felt like he’d been living in a stranger’s house, indeed living a stranger’s life. Now he nearly cried at the realization, for the first time in months, he finally felt he was home.

From then on, it became an implicit ritual. They would change, brush their teeth, check the last messages on their phones, and then Tadashi would crawl into bed and Hiro would follow. They never spoke about it, the change between them. Hiro would reach out and now Tadashi wouldn’t pull away. They didn’t talk about the way Hiro would stand closer to Tadashi, how their arms would brush when working together on Baymax, or the fact when they caught each other’s eye, Hiro wasn’t the only one who blushed.

*

Hiro was on top of the world. He felt loved in a way he’d never known and they hadn’t even kissed, well except for that one disastrous time when he’d been stupid and too hasty for more, but there was no need to think about that. He was willing to wait for whatever Tadashi was willing to give, when he was willing to give it. The only thing marring his utter bliss was the upcoming appointment he had with the Head of the Robotics Department, Professor Callaghan. Hiro wished he could just forget that Callaghan was in on the fake accident and that he was meeting with some stranger that was a partner in the crime. He also wanted to forget that Mr. Yama and his men were out there and could be making a move against him at any moment. He told no one what he knew, determined to figure things out for himself.

And so a couple days later, he found himself knocking on the door of Callaghan’s office. “Come in. Oh, hello Mr. Hamada, please sit down.”

“Thank you,” Hiro said, steeling himself against his own reservations about the man.

“I hope you’re making yourself at home here.”

“I am.”

“I’m truly happy you reapplied. I hope you know, I was your biggest support on the Board and I’m glad they saw reason to accept you to our fine institution.”

“Thank you, Professor Callaghan. I really am grateful. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d make it.”

“Nonsense! With your creative thinking and exceptional intelligence, I think you may be too modest.”

“Ever since the accident, I think I’ve just been more careful,” Hiro said, hoping to steer the conversation in a direction where he could get more information.

Callaghan didn’t skip a beat however. “I’m more careful as well. Luckily your brother was there to save me. You must feel blessed to have one so selfless and courageous in your family.”

“I do.” Hiro’s voice remained calm, but inside he was seething that anything about Tadashi passed through this deceitful man’s lips. Perhaps it was a bad idea to bring it up.

Thankfully, Callaghan was quite busy and finished the appointment quickly by having Hiro sign all the new forms SFIT required now. He told Hiro some more paperwork would be in the mail for his guardian, Miss Cass Hamada, to sign as well. In light of the fire, the institute was trying to protect itself as much as possible these days. Callaghan also said he kept liberal office hours for his students and, should he need anything, just make an appointment by email. Hiro couldn’t wait to be out of there.

The next day, he was in the Nerd Lab with Tadashi and the gang when he got a call, which was surprising because pretty much everyone he knew was in the same room with him at that moment. It was an unknown number, which made Hiro’s gut drop.

“I’ll be right back, you guys,” he said and ran out the building. Unfortunately the construction site was as noisy as ever, so he crossed the courtyard to one of the other buildings. The phone stopped ringing, but he didn’t go back to the lab. He found a restroom in the Sciences Building, went into a stall and locked it. He stared at the missed call and felt like he was about to hyperventilate. Who was calling him? It wasn’t about Aunt Cass; her emergency contact was Tadashi. No one knew his number. He waited a minute, but there was no voicemail. He started to think the worst and he almost dropped his phone when it began to vibrate from an incoming call again.

Cautiously, he answered and brought the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Hello, Hiro. I thought maybe you weren’t going to answer.”

“Who is this?”

“You don’t remember me? I’m truly injured. It’s Mr. Yama.”

The pit in Hiro’s stomach swelled.

“I’ll assume from your silence that you’re happy to hear from me.”

Hiro tried to compose himself, “Yes, of course. What can I do for you?”

“That’s exactly what I called to talk about, but first I want to say, ‘You’re welcome.’”

“I – I don’t understand.” Hiro’s mind raced. He didn’t know what to make of that.

“For getting you in, you’re welcome.”

“In? You mean…” _Oh my god!_

Mr. Yama laughed. “Now you get it. I had to twist a few arms so to speak on that School Board of yours, but I got the job done.”

Hiro really wanted to be pissed. He was supposed to have gotten into SFIT on his own merits, not on some wannabe mafia kingpin’s strong-arming. Though, all he could really feel was terror.

“So now, you owe me,” Mr. Yama continued. “And after what _your brother_ did to my boys, I hope you don’t mind if I take a little time to think about what you can do for me.”

Hiro was past pretending to be a tough guy that could handle everything. All he wanted to do was throw his phone against the wall and go hide in a corner until the world didn’t feel like it was closing in on him.

“Yes, in case you haven’t figured it out. I’ve had my boys watching you. I know all about you, your family, your friends, what you do and who you do it with. So don’t ignore the next time I call or I may feel inclined to get in touch with someone close to you to give you a _message_. You got it?

Hiro tried to force air out of his lungs to speak, but there was nothing there.

“I said, you got it, Boy?” Mr. Yama’s voice rose ever so slightly.

That was the impetus needed for Hiro to squeak out a, “Yes.”

“Good. Keep your phone close. I’ll be in touch.” And the line went dead.

Hiro held the phone against his head long after he was sure Mr. Yama was no longer there. When he finally pulled it away, his ear hurt from the pressure he’d put on it and his hands were trembling. He sank to his knees on the restroom floor and vomited into the toilet until his guts stopped flipping over inside him.

*

“Oh, Hiro. You don’t look so good,” Honey Lemon said when Hiro had calmed down enough to return to the Nerd Lab.

“Yeah, I think I’m getting sick.”

“Wow, you sound even worst than you look. I’ll get Tadashi.”

Hiro grabbed her arm. “No! Please, I don’t want to bug him. I can just take the bus home.”

“Are you sure?”

He loathed the idea of sharing a bus with a bunch of strangers, feeling as vulnerable as he did, but it was a better prospect than getting a quick ride home from Tadashi just to be asked questions he’d probably have to answer with lies.

“Hiro?”

He shook his head, “Yeah, I’m sure. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” He grabbed his hoodie and left before anyone else noticed he was there.

He wasn’t on the bus for no more than a few stops when Tadashi messaged him.

_Honey said you didn’t feel well and went home. Are you ok?_

Hiro sighed. _Yes_

_I’m packing up now. I’ll be home probably before you get there._

_Don’t. I’m fine, just a little sick. Work on that 3D laser with Wasabi some more. I didn’t tell you at the lab because I didn’t want to bug you and it’s not that big a deal._

The next message came slower from Tadashi. _Ok, but text me when you get home and if you need anything. I don’t like you being alone._

Hiro didn’t respond. He put the phone back in his pocket and slid low into his seat. When he got home, he sent Tadashi the obligatory text. This brother didn’t message back which was a good sign he wasn’t too worried about him. Hiro went upstairs, collapsed into his bed, and crushed his face into his pillow. He thought he would cry, but nothing came. At first, Mr. Yama’s phone call had felt like a gun being pointed at his forehead, but the more time passed, the more Hiro could rationalize it. All he had to do was whatever favor Mr. Yama asked and then it would all be over, hopefully. And it was pointless worrying about something he had no control over. He just had to wait it out, do whatever was needed, then get out. If Mr. Yama tried to take too much advantage, Hiro could always tell someone, report it to the police or something. He had an out. He just had to play it cool. After his overreaction in the restroom, his escape from the Nerd Lab and Tadashi, and now his ceaseless thoughts, Hiro fell into a fitful sleep.

It was late when Tadashi shook him awake with a bowl of steaming miso soup in hand. Hiro gladly accepted it and sipped it from the rim of the bowl.

“You don’t look so bad,” Tadashi said.

Hiro smiled. “I feel a lot better.”

“Probably some bad gummy bears.”

“Whatever,” he laughed. “You made me miso when we first started testing Baymax together.”

“You remember that?”

“I’m a genius. You have to crack my skull to make me forget things.”

It was Tadashi’s turn to laugh. It warmed Hiro’s heart they could be together like this so effortlessly. “Well, I’m turning in for the night,” Tadashi said.

Hiro knew that was a subtle invitation, but he was wide-awake at this point. “I think I’m going to work downstairs for a little while.”

Tadashi gave him a lopsided grin and ruffled his hair, “Ok.”

Hours later, Hiro yawned as he ascended the stairs. In their room, he changed into a pair of boxers and t-shirt and instinctively got into Tadashi’s bed. Tadashi rolled over to face Hiro.

“You’re awake,” Hiro said, mildly surprised.

“Yeah, it was hard to sleep alone…” The last word breathed out quieter than the others.

Hiro blushed and even though he knew it was too dark for Tadashi to see, he tried to roll over to hide his face. But before he could, Tadashi’s hand shot up and came to rest on Hiro’s neck to stop him from moving away. After a moment, his thumb traced back and forth over Hiro’s smooth jawline. Hiro couldn’t help smiling at the touch. Their faces were millimeters apart, their noses almost touching. He could feel Tadashi’s faint breathes cross his parted lips and a feeling stirred within him. Their eyes connected in the meager glow of the city lights coming from outside their window, Hiro could just barely see the searching look on Tadashi’s face.

Then Tadashi blinked, moved forward to hug Hiro, and whispered in his ear, “I’m glad you’re not sick.”

Hiro curled into Tadashi’s larger body, their limbs intertwining, his head pressed to Tadashi’s chest. “Me too.” They grew so comfortable, they didn’t release their embrace and Hiro fell asleep to the low, steady drum of Tadashi’s heartbeat.

*

Bright sunshine fell at a harsh early morning angle, like a spotlight, across the bed. Hiro spread his sluggish extremities and stretched. He lifted his head. Tadashi wasn’t in their bed.

The front door opened below and heavy footfalls came up the staircase. Tadashi came into the room breathing heavily, with dark sweaty patches on his gray t-shirt under his arms and down the middle of his back in a stripe. He pulled the shirt over his head and threw it in a corner before noticing Hiro was awake. Tadashi smiled and bent down to pet the younger’s hair. “Morning, Dozy Head. You have a serious case of bed-head.”

“Shut up,” Hiro said playfully, turning his face into the pillow.

“I like it.” Tadashi tried to pet down the more stubborn strands again. “Anyway, I’m going to shower.” He grabbed his towel and left.

Hiro lay there, replaying Tadashi’s tall, limber frame in only running shorts leaning over him, touching him. He remembered last night Tadashi’s strong legs wrapped around his own skinny ones, their soft skin sliding over each other. He heard the shower water turn on and wondered if Tadashi did the same stuff he did when he was in the shower. All this culminated into a very hard and very insistent boner. He couldn’t wait for his own shower. This had to be taken care of now. At least that’s what his hormones made him believe. He pulled the covers back, pushed his boxers down to his thighs, and unceremoniously started tugging on himself. With his other hand he reached under his shirt and rubbed his chest, fingertips constantly grazing his small nipples. Ever since he discovered those new points of pleasure, he never missed a chance to use them in his private little sessions. He wondered what it would be like to have Tadashi lick him like he had in his dream. Then he thought of something. He stopped stroking himself for just a few seconds to throw his t-shirt off. His one hand went back to work while he brought the other to his lips. He licked the tip of one of his fingers until it was quite wet then brought it down and swirled it around one of his nubs. He gasped as he watched it grow hard and more sensitive. He wondered if Tadashi did that to himself too. The wetness dried too quickly and he was so close to the edge, he quickly shoved his fingers in his mouth and brought them down on the other nipple. That was all it took. A muted moan forced its way past his throat and he came across his fingers and stomach. He continued to pump himself slowly as his whole body shuddered in the afterglow. After that, he just laid there a moment, eyes closed, relaxing limply into the bed.

Suddenly the shower water turned off. Hiro jumped up holding his sticky hand out to avoid touching anything. He scrambled to his discarded shirt on the floor, wiped himself up, and threw it in his hamper. Pulling up his boxers, he grabbed a towel just as the door to the bathroom opened. He passed by Tadashi in the hall and said, “Shower!” to his bother’s quizzical face.

Less than an hour later, they were on Tadashi’s bike heading toward the Nerd Lab. The morning release had cleared Hiro’s head and he was now focused on figuring out more about Callaghan and what better place to start than SFIT. The others had their projects at the school, but he hadn’t taken the time to transfer his secret project to the institute’s network yet. He preferred to work in his garage anyway. The quiet and lack of distractions helped his concentration. Tadashi had done the same with Baymax and look how that turned out.

So Hiro logged onto the computer at Tadashi’s empty station in the lab and looked up everything he could on Callaghan while the others worked. He went over every article written, award issued, and project assigned. There seemed to be nothing that helped him. Hiro supposed the only thing to do was to get what he needed from the source. Callaghan said he kept long office hours so his students had access to him and Hiro remembered the conversation the professor had with the mystery man weeks ago in cover of darkness. If those two had to meet again, it would be here at the institute. It was simple enough to pull up his office hours and look for times when he might be free for those secret visits. Hiro smiled to himself. Callaghan had shorter hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Either of those nights would probably be the best chance to catch the mystery man visiting again. It was the only chance Hiro could think of to get to the bottom of this and hopefully bring Callaghan and the other guy to justice.

Over the next few days, Hiro set up Tadashi’s station into something workable and brought Baymax to the lab to work on his upgrades at the institute. It was the perfect excuse to stay late and hopefully catch another late night rendezvous between Callaghan and the mystery man. At first Tadashi had been worried about leaving him alone, but between Hiro’s argument that campus security knew what they were doing and the lack of any activity from Mr. Yama, of which Hiro still kept secret Mr. Yama’s phone call, Tadasha finally allowed him some alone time in the lab.

Hiro installed a long-range scanner onto Baymax and had the robot constantly scanning for new people going toward the Sciences Building. That would be his alarm if the mystery man appeared. In the mean time, Hiro figured he could plan for his other problem of Mr. Yama and his goons also, and designed some custom armor for Baymax and some defensive weaponry. He made sure to only fabricate the armor, and fit it to Baymax’s bulbous shape, at night and encrypt his work so Tadashi wouldn’t find out about it. It wasn’t like Hiro was going to turn Baymax into a battle bot; he was just being prepared for the worst-case scenario. If Mr. Yama decided to try to take advantage of him, Hiro would be ready.

He also worked on a protective suit for himself. If he was going to fly on Baymax’s back, he wanted more than just some gloves and kneepads. He built a powered hard-shell chest piece with shoulder guards and more magmatic pads so he could attach himself to Baymax in different positions if need be. He tried designing more armor pieces for himself, but everything he devised felt too bulky or restrictive. An epiphany came to him while watching Honey slather one of her new concoctions onto some polymer fabric. He asked her if she could come up with a formula to increase the base polymer’s tensile strength yet force it to become rigid at high impacts.

“Like a reactive material?” she asked excitedly, seeing the potential.

“Exactly.”

“That sounds like so much fun! And it would be great for sports.” She looked at Hiro. “Wait, why are you asking?”

Hiro already planned for this line of questioning. “Well, Gogo had me testing her bike out and it’s fun except for all the falling. I’d really like to not look like I got beat up after riding it around the park again.”

She laughed, “I’ll see what I can do.”

The days passed quickly with all the designs and programs, Hiro was drawing or writing up, but he was disappointed every night Baymax didn’t notify him of any strangers on campus. He was worried Callaghan and the mystery man wouldn’t meet up again.

It was another week before Honey came up to him with folded pile of yellow material and a big smile on her face.

“Is this what I think it is?” Hiro asked.

“Yes, you should try it on!” She pushed him toward one of the supply closets. He closed the door once inside and unfolded it to reveal a one-piece, full-body suit. There was only one problem.

“Um, how do I put this thing on?” he asked through the door. The only openings were for the head, hands, and feet.

“You can stretch the collar open.”

“Oh.” It took him a couple tries, but soon he got his feet through to the leg holes and his hands through the armholes. He had to pull at the material quite a bit to get it over his body and when he was done, it was definitely too short. It only covered his legs down just passed his knees. Worse, it was so tight it didn’t leave anything to the imagination. He could even see the lines of his underwear through it. He put his cargo shorts on over it and opened the door.

A light promptly flashed as Honey took a picture. Hiro’s cheeks reddened, glad he’d donned the shorts. Of course, she would. “It’s a little tight,” Hiro tested stretching in it, “and yellow.”

“I think yellow is perfect.”

“Maybe something a little manlier?”

“Next time. This is the test suit anyway. Any impacts will turn the mechano-mesh red.”

“Mechano-mesh?”

“I’m still working on what to call it. Anyway, time to test! Oh, Gogo!” Honey called her over. “Hiro needs to test your bike.”

Gogo looked at Hiro clad in his banana suit like it was an abomination. Hiro quickly threw his t-shirt back on to hide more of it. Gogo only spoke when Hiro’s normal clothes hid the canary coverings. “Last time, he nearly rode my delicate equipment up a tree and almost broke every bone in his body.”

“Perfect!” Honey said. “For science!”

Hiro was as shaky on Gogo’s bike as he was last time. He much preferred the smooth flying of Baymax to this contraption. He had to remind himself the falls were a good thing for this test, regardless of how many pictures Honey took. After about a half hour of riding or, in Hiro’s case, bailing, they went back to the Nerd Lab to check the results.

“So what do you think?” Honey asked.

“I don’t feel as sore,” Hiro shrugged.

“That’s because you didn’t fall as much,” Gogo said. “I installed stabilizers since your last ride. They didn’t help you too much. I think you’re just naturally clumsy.” She then left them to go inspect any damage Hiro may have done to her bike.

“Whatever, let’s see the suit,” Honey said. Hiro took off his t-shirt and the results were obvious. Red streaks covered his shoulders, there were red spots on his elbows, and one nasty oval shape on his side. “Looks like it worked!”

“It feels like it worked,” Hiro added.

“I bet it’ll be even better with a proper fitting. Go change and I’ll measure you.”

The next day, when Tadashi brought Hiro to the lab, he saw everyone had changed their screen savers to photos of Hiro’s spectacular crashes. Tadashi was watching his face as if he was in on it and wanted to be first to see his reaction. Hiro should’ve felt embarrassed, but instead he felt like he really belonged now. He was part of the Nerd Lab, not just visiting it.

The day after that, Honey presented Hiro with a new black bundle. “I made some adjustments based on your feedback. Fred even helped a little.”

“Fred?” Hiro raised an eyebrow.

“I picked the color,” Fred said, sliding a hand around Honey’s waist. “You’re welcome.”

“I thought yellow was fine,” Hiro heard Honey say as he went into the closet to try it on. This time there was no awkward wiggling through a neck hole – there was a zipper that went from collar to stomach. The suit was solid black except for two thin red stripes that extended from the shoulders down the arms to the wrists. The fit was much better too, still relatively snug on the arms and torso, but looser and more comfortable on the waist and legs. When he came out the door, he heard another camera snap.

“What did I tell you,” Fred said in awe, “it’s Ninja Hiro.”

Everyone buzzed around him poking at the suit and asking questions of Honey. Tadashi even flicked the zipper tab and asked what it was made of. Hiro wasn’t used to being the center of attention, but he was starting to like it. Once Honey announced it had been Hiro that gave her the idea, Wasabi asked if he could take a longer at his project too, maybe inspire him a little. Hiro was thrilled. Normally, Tadashi counseled everyone on their projects because he was in the final stages of completing Baymax’s AI and had the time. Now Hiro would be looked up to almost as much. He couldn’t think of better footsteps to follow in. It was an amazing feeling.

That night, he stayed late again, hoping to catch the mystery man, and passing the time by incorporating his new mechano-mesh suit to fit under his chest armor and uploading new martial arts programs to Baymax’s database.

He was working on the floor, fitting a pair of his shoes with reinforced straps when Baymax suddenly stated, “Bio-signature detected.”

Hiro jumped up. “Where?!”

“The person crossed the proximity onto the campus. Projected trajectory is the Science Building. Would you like me to subdue him?” Baymax held up his arms in karate-chop fashion.

“No. Stay here. How much time do I have?”

“The person should arrive in less than two minutes.”

“Ok,” Hiro said, bracing himself. “Listen carefully. Monitor my bio-signature. If I leave the campus, that means something bad happened to me, so contact Tadashi. Only contact him if I leave the campus ok. Otherwise, stay here until I come back.”

“I understand.”

Hiro bolted out the door of the Nerd Lab and across to the steps of the Sciences Building. Inside, the building was dark except for the green-lit exit signs. He opened the door to the emergency stairs near the entrance and closed it softly behind him. There he watched through the tall and narrow window in the door for whoever was approaching the building.

It startled him how quickly after he’d hidden, a man entered. His footsteps clicked on the hard floor as he passed the door to the stairwell and stopped at the elevators. Hiro waited until he was sure the man entered one of them then dashed up the stairs to the floor Professor Callaghan’s office was on. He was winded as he peeked through a window on an identical door on this floor. The mystery man had already passed Hiro’s door and was turning a corner down the hall. With much trepidation, Hiro turned the handle and quietly followed to the corner. He saw the man knock at Callaghan’s office then enter. This was definitely the guy, Hiro thought.

Hiro nervously approached the door and put his ear to it, listening.

“Hold on, hold on,” Callaghan was saying. “Don’t say anything yet. Turn off your cell phone.”

“What?” the mystery man asked incredulously.

“I have an EMP device. You said you were worried about bugs and so am I. Turn off anything you’re carrying.”

_Oh crap_ , Hiro thought, scrambling for his own phone and shutting it down. He put his ear back to the door once he was sure his phone was off.

“There. Now what do you want, Krei.”

“You received my note. I want that software.”

“You’ll get it. You already got the physical specs.”

“Yes, but I could develop that by myself if I needed to. The software is what makes the whole thing work and my teams can’t replicate that little innovation.”

“Have a little patience. You knew this venture might take time.”

“I’ve waited years.”

“And haven’t I delivered every time?”

“Things are different now and you know it. I have full access now with nothing beyond some cheap tricks to show for it. I’m starting to wonder if I should’ve gone about this a different way.”

“What are you saying?” Callaghan sounded aghast.

“I’m saying I don’t need you or the damn IP anymore. I’ll get what I need myself. I knew it was a waste of time coming here.”

“But what about-”

“Oh stop sniveling, Robert. You can keep your pathetic job. I’ll always need someone to keep things in order around here.”

Hiro didn’t hear anything else right away and listened harder against the door. But instead of hearing voices, he felt the doorknob turn and the door opened inward as Hiro pushed away from it, knocking it against the man opening it.

“What the hell!” Krei bellowed, holding the side of his face where the door struck him. “Who are you?”

Hiro had fallen into the shadows – thankful he was still wearing his black mesh suit. He scrambling to his feet and ran away before either of the men could react further. They gave chase and shouted after him, but he was quicker. He darted down a hall, turned left, found some stairs, descended three steps at a time to the second floor, and hid in one of the classrooms. He heard a bit more yelling, then silence, which was all the more nerve-wracking. Hiro huddled by a desk hearing only his labored breaths and the pounding of his heart in his head. After a few minutes, he recognized the main entrance door slamming open from below. He went to window and peered out. There was the mystery man, _Krei?_ , looking around the courtyard. Seconds later, Callaghan was coming around the outside of the building, shaking his head. Krei pointed hostilely at Callaghan in heated argument, but they were too quiet to hear from where Hiro was, then Krei marched away from the professor and the building. Hiro sank to the cold, hard floor and gradually calmed down.

*

Between the lack of sleep the night before and no desire to see the campus after spending most of the night there in a state of panic-induced paranoia, Hiro didn’t feel like going to SFIT the next day. He stayed in bed long past Tadashi’s run and shower routine, and only grunted from under the covers when his older brother said he was leaving for the institute.

The few hours he’d slept had been broken and filled with nightmares of being caught. He kept repeating certain phrases he’d heard last night over in his head to remember them. Hiro only had more questions after Callaghan’s secret conversion. Who was Krei? What was this software he wanted and why couldn’t Callaghan just give it to him if Krei had so much power over him? And what was with the IP address Krei had mentioned? Was that how they communicated normally? Something really bugged him about all this, like he was close to answers without knowing why.

Eventually, he got up and went into the garage to do some searching online. He tried looking up every spelling of Krei he could think of, but couldn’t figure it out. He was getting very frustrated when his phone vibrated on the desk. It was Tadashi.

_You awake yet dozy head?_

Hiro’s face cracked into a smile. _Yes_. Then he thought of something. _Have you heard of a guy named Cray in the software industry?_

_You mean Alistair Krei? He’s CEO of Krei Tech. Why are you asking? Did he contact you?_

Hiro got scared. Why would Tadashi think he and Krei would possibly communicate? Tadashi sent another text before Hiro responded. _He’s pretty eccentric and goes after new tech and talent aggressively. You haven’t responded to him, have you?_

_No, he hasn’t contacted me. Someone mentioned him and I was curious._

_Have you eaten yet? I’m coming home for lunch. We can talk more._

_Haven’t eaten, come home soon, I’m starving._

_LOL, ok._

Hiro didn’t wait very patiently for lunch. He may have cheated and eaten through half a bag of chips while doing research on this Krei guy now that he knew the spelling before Tadashi came home with a very thoughtful bag of takeout food. They ate in the kitchen while Tadashi enlightened Hiro on some of the developments Krei Tech had done and some of the people Krei had hired out of SFIT.

“So does Callaghan help Krei hire students or something?” Hiro asked.

“No way. Callaghan has always hated that guy and tells everyone not to work for him. Is Callaghan the one that mentioned Krei to you?”

“No!” Hiro said, wondering if maybe he should tell Tadashi about the conspiracy he’d stumbled upon.

“Either way, I’m sure he’d want a piece of you just like every other high profile student at SFIT.”

“Has he contacted you?” Hiro asked Tadashi curiously.

“Why would you think that?”

“You seem pretty passionate about the guy and you’re the best robotics student in the department.”

“I think I might be second best now,” Tadashi looked at Hiro above his food.

Hiro smirked, “Finally some recognition!”

“Oh, shut up,” Tadashi threw a fry at Hiro.

Even though they’d ended the conversation in a carefree way, Hiro didn’t like that Tadashi had a look that said he knew Hiro was hiding something from him. Thankfully, Tadashi never voiced a concern. They finished lunch and Hiro was throwing the food containers away when he noticed his school acceptance letter on the fridge. Aunt Cass had stuck it there with a magnet, a display of pride for her nephew. It wasn’t the letter so much as the small logo printed on the bottom of the paper that caught his attention. It was the corporate logo for Krei Tech. What the hell was that doing on the institute’s letterhead? Hiro felt like he was going to need to get to the bottom of this, and the sooner the better.

He took an early afternoon ride to SFIT on the back of Tadashi’s motorcycle, but instead of follow Tadashi into the Nerd Lab, he went to the Admissions Building. After showing multiple forms of ID and paying a small fee, which didn’t seem necessary at all, Hiro requested a copy of his school documents. He expected the lady behind the desk to go to a drawer in the back and pull out the necessary paperwork, but was disappointed to discover, he’d receive an email notification in a few days when the paperwork was ready. Hiro wondered, for an institution priding itself as a tech leader, why they had such an antiquated records system.

A bit disappointed at the stall in his snooping, for lack of a better word, he began his walk back to the Nerd Lab to join Tadashi and the others. His phone rang halfway there and when he saw _Unknown Number_ display on the screen, he knew he had to prepare himself against all fear.

“Hello?” he answered on the third ring.

“Hiro, my friend.” It was Mr. Yama. “How are you today?”

“What do you want?” Hiro said, feeling a little braver, especially now that he had secretly upgraded Baymax into a defensive battle bot.

“Too the point as always. I will miss our little talks.” When Hiro didn’t respond after a short pause, Mr. Yama continued, “I’m calling in your favor to me and it’s something you have easy access to. You see, I’ve figured out a way for your brother and yourself to pay back the favors you both owe me.”

“Tadashi doesn’t owe you anything. Leave him out of it.”

“He saw my warehouse, roughed up my men; he’s lucky to be drawing breath right now.”

Hiro swallowed hard, but refused to lose his courage like the last time they talked. The threat to Tadashi only made Hiro angrier. “So what is it?”

“I want the AI that runs on that bot you and your brother keep working on.”

It was like a punch to Hiro’s gut. Stealing his brother’s work, “W-why?”

“If you had to stay on top in my world, you’d understand you’d always need to have the best tools available. A self-learning system in the fighting scene is going to come sooner or later, and I’d rather it to be sooner and on my bots first. Now, you get me that program or I’ll have to ask your brother to give it to me himself. And I won’t be as nice when I ask him.”

What Mr. Yama was asking Hiro to do was copy Tadashi’s life’s work and turn it over to probably the one person with the worst intentions for it. And if he didn’t do it – Hiro remembered the dark bruises that had marred Tadashi’s pale skin weeks ago. “Fine.”

“Good. I’ll give you until the end of tomorrow. Drop it in the mail box next to that Ramen shop where my men first found you.”

“How do I know you won’t try to kidnap me when I get there?”

“Hiro… I could have you disappear off the streets with the snap of my fingers and that hasn’t happened. You’ll just have to take me at my word. Remember, deliver it by tomorrow night.” Mr. Yama hung up.

Hiro slipped the phone back in his pocket and walked the rest of the way back to the Nerd Lab. Inside, he sat at Tadashi’s station, which had really become his now, and tried to continue his work as if that phone call never happened. He was failing spectacularly. Thoughts of how easy it would be to deceive his brother, how simple it would be to clone Baymax’s disc, and give it to anyone. It made Hiro feel so repulsive. It wasn’t like Tadashi was even worried about anyone stealing it. The crime would be casual and contemptible. Hiro would never forget what he did if he went through with this betrayal and wondered if Mr. Yama knew it in the asking. Perhaps it was just an unforeseen injury for getting involved in this whole mess in the first place. Either way, Hiro decided he was doing to do the opposite of what Mr. Yama thought he was going to do, even if he was going to comply in the end.

Hiro stood and walked over to Tadashi where he was discussing particle physics and lasers with Wasabi. Both of them looked up at him when he approached. “Tadashi, I have a problem and I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you once again for your support for this work. It's getting quite long now and your kind words and kudos are what keep me writing.
> 
> I apologize if there are any spelling, grammar, or editing mistakes. As I've said before, I proofread my own work, so technically you're the second person to read it.
> 
> I've been updating tags as I go. Let me know if I missed one.
> 
> Last, I'm not even going to try to give you a timeframe for the next chapter. Between the holiday (in the U.S.) coming up this week and my overly optimistic estimate last time, I'd hate to disappoint again. This chapter was quite long and I expect the next to be as well. I can only ask for your patience and continued enthusiasm for the story.
> 
> Regards,  
> Colin


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